Lions & Serpents Part One: The Gathering Darkness
by PotterTheLoneWanderer
Summary: This is the 1st part of a trilogy, that is slightly AU. Set in the Maruarders era it will be following the Maruarders, Lilly and Snape through their last year at Hogwarts, aswell as Regulus.
1. Hogwarts Bound

**AN:** This story is going to be the first part of a triliogy of stories based around the maruarders, Snape & Regulus. It's going to be slightly AU but not by much, most things should stay the same.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter universe, but any o/c are of my own invention.

**Chapter one - Hogwarts Bound**

An owl flew into the pitch black of the night, towards a large house on the edge of a small village. The house looked old and uninhabited, but the screams from inside betrayed that illusion. The owl flew in through an open window and landed in a room with six people inside it, five standing up and one lying crumpled up on the floor.

"Please no more." the women on the floor moaned.

"That will all depend on the answer of your daughter" the man spoke from above her.

He turned around and fixed his red eyes on a girl of no more then 17 years of age, with long brown hair and a pretty face, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. He asked her "Will you end this pain for your mother and join me like your father, or shall I continue to torture her?"

"Yes I'll join you, I'll do anything you ask, just please don't torture her anymore!" said the girl through her sobs.

"Hold out your arm." The man ordered.

He then pointed his wand at the girls arm and murmured a spell that she couldn't make out and a skull started to appear on her arm, with a snake wrapped round it and coming out of its mouth. The girl stood and stared at the mark for a few moments, and then went over and picked up her mother and carried her out of the room.

"Well Wilkes I am glad that your daughter finally came to her senses and joined us. She shall be quite useful. Although, I am disappointed that you couldn't persuade her." He hissed.

"Yes my lord, I am sorry that you had to get involved." Wilkes grovelled. "We have received word from Malfoy that our other two recruits will be in place by tomorrow and awaiting your orders."

"Good, everything is going to plan then." He replied.

* * *

"Come on Prongs, hurry up or your going to miss the train." Sirius shouted.

A boy of 17, with extremely messy hair, glasses and a badge pinned to his chest was running down the platform towards the door where Sirius was standing. He managed to jump onto the train just before it set off.

"Prongs mate, what took you so long?" asked Sirius

"I'm sorry Padfoot, I had to say goodbye to my parents, and I ran into Evans..." James replied

"Let me guess, she ignored you again?" Interrupted Sirius.

"Yes she did Padfoot, I don't know what I'm doing wrong!" whined James.

"Don't worry she can't ignore your for much longer now that your head boy and she's head girl." Said Sirius. "Come on, let's go and find Wormtail and Moony."

James and Sirius headed down the train looking into each compartment. It took them five minutes to find the right one, as it was down the opposite end of the train. When they walked in there was only a short stumpy kid sitting in the compartment.

"Hello Wormtail, where's Moony? Did he miss the train like I nearly did?" asked James.

"No he got on the train, he just went to the prefects meeting. You know, where the head _boy_ and girl are _supposed_ to be giving them their instructions for the train journey." Replied Peter with a smirk on his face.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that Moony was still a prefect." Stated James.

Peter and Sirius stood there looking at James waiting for what was said to sink in. James stood in silence for a few moments before he realised what was going on.

"Oh no, Evans is gonna kill me!" said James.

The next second he was running out of the compartment and down the train corridor. He left Peter and Sirius laughing so hard that they were leaning on each other to keep standing.

An hour later James returned to the compartment looking crestfallen followed by a scrawny looking boy. They both sat down and watched Peter and Sirius finish a game of exploding snap.

"That's five games to four, to me. You owe me three chocolate frogs when the lunch lady comes." gloated Sirius. "So Moony, how bad was it?"

The scrawny boy replied "Well first off Prongs, here was 15 minutes late, then when he finally got there Lilly, shouted at him for another 15 minutes. Something about responsibility, I couldn't really hear because I was covering my ears. When it was over he just sat in the corner for the rest of the meeting looking dejected."

"That bad!" said Sirius with his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

James finally spoke up "Yeah it was pretty bad but she did speak to me, I think I'm finally getting through to her."

Peter, Sirius and Remus just stood there and stared at him with their mouths hanging open. After a few minutes silence Sirius was the first to speak "Well let's leave Prongs to his delusions and play a few more games of exploding snap, I think I can get a few more chocolate frogs out of Wormtail."


	2. Slytherin’s and Gryffindor’s

**AN: **Thanks for the review, here's the next chapter

**Chapter Two – Slytherin's and Gryffindor's**

Further on down the train four other people were heading into a compartment with a single person inside of it. He had his face buried in a book with his greasy hair trailing over it. When the compartment door opened he looked up at the four people that just walked in. He turned his hooked nose towards the tall muscular boy, with short sandy hair, who sat down next to him.

"So Avery, how did the prefect meeting go?" he asked

"It was boring as usual, but it was worth going to, cause Potter got yelled at by Evans. You should of seen his face Sev, it was priceless." replied Avery with a smirk on his face.

Severus turned and looked at the other three people in the compartment. There were two girls; one was tall with long brown hair, blue eyes and a pretty face. Who Severus, knew was Jane Collingwood. The other was a spitting image of the tall girl but she was shorter and had green eyes. Severus knew that Jane had a sister and this must have been her. The third person had a face all too familiar, with the same gray eyes and black hair. The only difference was that he was shorter. He was Regulus Black. Severus turned back to Avery.

"What are those two doing in here?" He snarled

"Relax Sev, Jane wanted to bring Ellie with us as no-one in her year seems to like her. Well apart from Reg here who didn't stop staring at her throughout the prefect meeting and is still at it now. Aren't you Reg?" said Avery

Regulus turned away from Ellie and looked at Avery. "W-what…I'm…your…not staring…no…oh shut up!" Stammered Regulus.

He then turned around and stared out of the door window to watch people walk past. Severus glared at him for a few more moments and then turned and lent towards Avery.

"Fine, that's why _she's_ here and I don't mind that. But why is _he_ here?" he whispered, nodding his head towards Regulus.

"Well I got to know Reg over the summer, you know, because of our families, and I found out that we've got a lot in common." Whispered Avery "Anyway I thought you could do with some more friends, as you've only got me and Jane. Don't worry Sev. He's nothing like his brother."

Severus glared at Avery for a few moments, and then he turned his attention to Jane "Speaking of friends Jane, are you still friends with Lupin?"

"Yes I am still friends with him Severus, and nothing you say is going to change that. He's nothing at all like Potter and Black. He's not arrogant like them, he's the only one not in Slytherin who talks to me in the prefect meetings, and he's kind." She replied.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you knew what I know about him." Severus growled.

"Oooo, Jane's got a crush on Lupin." Sang Ellie

"No I don't sis, shut up." Said Jane.

"OK, now we've sorted that out, who wants a game of chess?" asked Avery, trying to avert a sibling row.

Regulus jumped up at the request and took the challenge. Severus turned back to his book to carry on reading and Jane and Ellie decided to cheer on the chess pieces as they beat each other up.

The rest of the journey passed without any incident and with 20 minutes left of the train ride they all changed into their robes, gathered their trunks and got ready to leave the train.

* * *

"Come on Padfoot! Just shove the rest of those chocolate frogs into your case, or give them to Wormtail to hold." James moaned.

"I'm not going to give them to Wormtail, he'll just eat them, and I won them off him. Anyway you just want me to hurry so you can get a carriage with Evans, and you know that that won't happen." Sirius Jibed

"That's not true! I just want to get a good seat at the table." James replied.

"Yeah, next to Evans." Peter added, trying to stop himself from laughing. Sirius and Lupin both had smirks on their faces.

"Come on lets just get into a carriage." James grumbled

All four of them headed towards the horseless carriages and climbed in one of them. Then they started off down the lane from Hogsmeade towards Hogwarts. After a few minutes the castle came into view.

"You know, I never get tired of seeing that. It's going to be a shame when we have to leave." Sirius said as he was staring up at the castle.

The carriages stopped in front of the castle and the four of them got out and headed inside to the great hall. They walked through the open doors and sat down at the Gryffindor table. The enchanted ceiling above them was a clear night sky with sparkling stars.

"I've got a good feeling about this year. I think that I'm finally going to get a date with Evans." Said James

"You say that every year, and it never happens." Sirius replied "Hey"

James had punched him on his arm. A girl with short blond hair and brown eyes sat down next to James.

"You think that I'm going to get a date with Evans this year, don't you Sarah?" James asked.

"Well I don't know. Will you kick me off the quidditch team if I say no?" she asked.

"Don't worry. Our captain wouldn't be stupid enough to kick our star seeker off the team, no matter what she said." Sirius pointed out.

"Yeah he's right, I wouldn't do that." James agreed.

"Well, I'm going to have to say no then. But don't worry with my help you'll have her in no time. I'll tell you the details later though, as she's on her way to the table." Sarah said.

A very pretty girl with long red hair and green almond shaped eyes sat down next to Sarah. James sat and stared at her throughout the sorting of the first years and Dumbledore's speech. He only took his eyes off her when food appeared on their plates. When the meal was finished they all headed up to Gryffindor tower. They got to the portrait of the fat lady and stopped, and waited for James to say the password.

"Cleansweep" said James.

The portrait opened and they all climbed through the hole and into the Gryffindor common room where there was a nice roaring fire waiting for them.


	3. This is Going to be an Interesting Year

**Chapter Three – This is going to be an interesting year**

The Gryffindor common room was filled with the excited chatter of first years, until James told them all that he was the head boy and that he wanted some quiet. Then they all went off to their dormitories.

"Now that no-one is here to interrupt us, can you tell me how I'm going to get Evans to go out with me?" James said to Sarah.

"OK, but I can't take too long as I told Lilly that I'd be up soon." She replied. "First off you've got to stop calling her Evans when you talk to her, and call her Lilly instead.

"I can do that."

"Now Lilly will probably kill me for saying this but, she does actually like you. She just won't go out with you while you're acting all arrogant and hexing people for no reason."

All the boys just sat there in stunned silence. Sirius was the first to speak up.

"You're telling me that Lilly actually likes James!?! I don't believe it. What about all the shouting she does at him, almost every day?"

"Well she shouts at him because she's disappointed in him. She talks about it all the time." Sarah stated.

"That must mean that McGonagall likes James and Sirius, as she's always shouting at them." Peter said.

He got a few cushions thrown at him for his troubles. After the commotion had died down James spoke up again.

"Yeah well, were not talking about Sirius's love life, were on about me and Lilly. So what else should I do Sarah?" James said

"Well you've got to talk to her, and I mean actually talk to her not just ask her out. Find out things about her." She replied.

"OK, so I've got to call her Lilly, stop hexing people for no reason, talk to her and get to know her better."

"Exactly. If you do all that she, should ask you to Slughorn's Christmas party and if that fails you can go with me or Megan and we'll try and make her jealous." She said winking at James. "But we can deal with all of that tomorrow, because I'm off to bed, before Lilly sends a search party down to look for me. Night guys."

With that Sarah got up out of the chair she was in and headed up the girl's staircase to her dormitory that she shared with Lilly and Megan.

"I think I'm going to head up to." Peter stated "You guy's coming?"

"We'll join you in a bit Wormtail." Remus replied.

Peter headed up the boys staircase to their dormitory. The three boys sat there in silence for a while until Sirius finally asked.

"So Prongs are you really gonna do all that to try and get Evans?"

"Well yeah, except for the not hexing Snape part. I'll just do that while she's not with me." James said with a smirk on his face.

"I don't know why your gonna bother with all that stuff. You're not going to see her again after this year."

"That's the point Padfoot! I want to see her again after we finish school, I like seeing her!" James moaned.

"Well you'd better do what Sarah said then, a miracle could happen and it could work." Remus jibed.

"Yeah well moving on from my love life, did you see whom your brother was sitting next to at the feast Padfoot?" James asked.

"How could I not, his greasy hair was falling in his food! But it's got nothing to do with me anymore, cause he stopped talking to me when I moved out. Anyway I was more worried about old Moony here talking to Collingwood." Sirius pointed out as he turned to glare at Remus.

"Her name is Jane." Remus said calmly.

"Doesn't matter what we call her Moony, she's a Slytherin!" James almost shouted.

"It matters to me what you call her, and as I'm your friend you should respect that." Remus stated. "Anyway, she's not like other Slytherins, she's kind and doesn't believe in all that pureblood stuff, two of her grandparents are muggles."

"Yeah well, I still don't trust her." Sirius said

"Me neither." James agreed.

"You can both think what you like, but I trust her." Remus replied. "Anyway it's getting late, we should go to bed or we'll oversleep and miss our first class tomorrow."

"Padfoot will oversleep anyway, he always does." James said as the three of them were climbing up the boy's staircase.

As they entered their dormitory they could all here Peter snoring as he slept. They all got ready for bed and climbed into them. As James put his head down on his pillow he thought _this is going to be an interesting year._

* * *

As the Gryffindor boys were going to sleep in their dormitory, out under the lake in the Slytherin's torch lit common room two boys were sitting finishing a game of wizard's chess.

"That's 3-2 to me Ave!" Regulus smirked.

"Well you finally beat me Reg; I thought you had the brains to do it." Avery replied.

"I still don't know why you wanted to teach me this game Ave."

"Cause it helps to improve your strategy, and shows you how to manipulate situations to your advantage. With the erm... 'situation' that we are in you need those skills to survive. And I like you Reg, so I want you to survive." Avery said bluntly.

Regulus just sat there glancing around the room, looking like he was in deep thought about something. There was an eerie silence in the room until Avery spoke up again.

"I still not to sure how you ended up in this mess. I mean I know why I am. With my farther being there from the start, if I'd had said no he probably would of killed me himself!" Avery stated.

"Look we've already been through this Ave, I'm in this mess because my parents didn't want me too end up like Sirius, so they talked my cousin Bellatrix into getting me in. So it's really all Sirius's fault"

"So that's why you stopped talking to him then?" Avery asked.

Regulus didn't reply. He just sat there in thought. Why had Sirius left him in this mess? Why did they have to keep an eye on the objects? What was so important about them? He decided to voice some of his concerns to Avery.

"Have you ever wondered why we have to keep checking on those objects? And what he wants them for?"

"I have thought about it, but its better if we forget about that for the moment until we know a bit more. What I'm worried about is how were going to get to them that often without looking suspicious. Because I don't want to fail the Dark Lord, I've seen what he does to people who fail him and it's not pretty." Avery shivered a little as he said the last part.

"I suppose that where going to have to take it in turns so it doesn't look as suspicious, and only do it once a month." Regulus suggested.

"Yeah, that could work." Avery agreed.

They both sat in silence again and watched as the two kings started having a sword fight on the chessboard. Just as a full-blown war was about to beak out, Regulus brushed his pieces into a small bag.

"I'm going to head up to bed now. Are you coming?" Regulus asked.

"No I think I'll stay down her for a while." Avery replied.

"OK, I'll see you in the morning at breakfast then." Regulus said as he headed to the boys staircase.

As Avery was sitting there in silence and in deep thought, and Regulus was walking up the staircase to his dormitory neither of them noticed a dark figure in the corner of the room watching them. _So they have the same problem that I have_. The person thought.


	4. Late Again

**Chapter Four – Late again**

James, Peter and Remus were all sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. The enchanted ceiling was a clear blue sky without a cloud in sight, and James was staring up at it, lost in his thoughts.

"Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter, would you please look at me." Professor McGonagall prompted. James still sat there staring up at the ceiling.

"I'll get his attention for you professor."

Peter thumped James on his arm, and James quickly turned around and glared at him.

"What did you do that for Wormtail?"

"So we finally have your attention Mr. Potter." McGonagall said.

James spun round and nearly fell off his seat. He steadied himself and saw Professor McGonagall standing in front of him.

"Sorry Professor, I was just thinking."

"That's alright Potter, it's good to know that you _do_ do that on occasion. Now here is your timetable for this school year."

She handed James a piece of paper showing him when his usual subjects of Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts were. He noticed that he had double Transfiguration first.

"Could you tell me where Mr. Black is this morning? I have to give him his timetable too"

"Well you see Professor, he's still asleep, but I'll take his timetable and give it to him when he gets here." James replied.

"Thank you Potter. I hope that he won't be late for Transfiguration, as I don't want to be taking points off my own house on the first day." She sighed. "Oh, and Potter, you're to schedule the quidditch tryouts for next week. And make sure you pick a good team, as I've grown fond of that cup in my office."

"I will Professor."

With that said Professor McGonagall walked off down the table and handed out the rest of the Gryffindor timetables. James watched as she handed one to Lilly and then turned back to Peter and Remus.

"You know I'm surprised that Padfoot didn't wake up when I used Levicorpus on him this morning. He is a really heavy sleeper; I wouldn't be surprised if he slept through one of us being under the Cruciatus curse." He said.

"Yeah I know, do you remember that time in the third year when we set off a bunch of Filibuster's fireworks and he didn't wake up?" Remus asked.

"I remember that Moony. McGonagall gave us a weeks worth of detentions for that, even Padfoot."

"You should have just left him hanging there this morning; he would have woken up eventually." Peter said.

"We couldn't have done that Wormtail; he would have passed out with all the blood rushing to his head." James stated.

"Right. So do you think that were going to win the quidditch cup again this year? I mean with Padfoot as beater, you as chaser and Sarah as seeker…."

Peter didn't finish his sentence; he just stopped and stared down the table. James and Remus followed his gaze and saw that he was staring at Sarah. James started to wave his hands in front of Peters face to get his attention, and when that didn't work he punched him on his arm. Peter turned around with a dazed look in his eyes.

"Now that you're back with us Wormtail, I'll answer your question. I think we'll win it if we get a good beater that can work with Padfoot, and two average chasers will do, because I can score most our goals." James said with a cocky smile on his face.

"I wouldn't be too sure on that Prongs, Slytherin did run you close last year, and they've only got to replace one player while you've got to replace three." Remus pointed out.

Peter stared at Remus with a look of bewilderment on his face, and James had a look of indignation on his.

"Look Moony I know you've got a thing for Collingwood and she's on there team an all, but you could show some house spirit, or at least have some confidence in me. Anyway they've got to replace a seeker, which will be hard to do, and I've already got one chaser picked out."

"Prongs you can't put Lilly on the team just to get to…"

"I'm not going to put Lilly on the team. I was talking about Megan's brother Kirley. She's told me that he's a really good flyer and can handle the quaffle well. So I've really only got two places to fill."

"OK I was just trying to point out that it's not going to be as easy as you think it is that's all."

"Fine, just as long as you don't go supporting the Slytherin's because of Collingwood."

"Guy's we should get going to Transfiguration, everyone else has started to set off." Peter pointed out.

James, Remus and Peter picked up their bags and started to head out of the Great Hall. James suddenly stopped walking and turned around.

"Hold on one minute." He said

He walked back to the table and grabbed a few pieces of toast and rashes of bacon, put them in a napkin and walked out of the hall. Peter and Remus walked out after him.

By taking one of their many shortcuts they managed to get to the Transfiguration classroom before anyone else and waited outside. When they were let in by McGonagall, James held the door open for Lilly and helped her pick her things up when a Slytherin, Phyllis Umbridge, knocked them onto the floor. After James's help Lilly looked at him questioningly but he didn't say anything, he just went and sat down.

Professor McGonagall stood at the front of the class and addressed them.

"Now, as this is the year that you will be taking your NEWT's, you will find that your workload will increase from last years. We will be continuing with non-verbal spells and we shall also be studying the process needed in order to become an Animagus. That will come later on in the year. To start with this year we will be transfiguring a chair into a dog, with Verbal spells first, and then non-verbal. As such"

She pointed her wand at a chair and did some complicated wand movement and it transformed into a dog.

"I don't expect that any of you will be able to do that in this lesson, maybe by the second or third. Now Mr. Potter and Miss Collingwood would you please hand out the chairs."

James got up and walked to a pile of chairs, pointed his wand at them, and with a lazy swish and flick they rose into the air and followed behind him. He made sure that he gave Lilly her chair and smiled at her as he did so.

Fifteen minutes into the lesson Sirius turned up looking thoroughly out of breath and tried to slip into his seat next to James without being noticed.

"Mr. Black, you havefinally decided to grace us with your presence then. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take 5 points from Gryffindor for being 15 minutes late. Now come up to the front and get a chair, Mr. Potter can tell you what you're supposed to be doing." McGonagall said sharply.

When Sirius finally sat down next to James he gave Sirius his timetable and passed him the napkin with the toast and bacon in it.

"Thanks Prongs."

"You're late again Padfoot. How do you do it? Seven years and you've been late for every first day of lessons that we've had."

"I guess I'm just talented like that. Why didn't you just wake me up?"

"I tried Padfoot, I hung you upside down for 3 minutes, but you sleep like a log!"

"Oh, right. So what are we supposed to be doing then?"

"I'll show you."

James pointed his wand at the chair in front of him and did the same complicated wand movements as McGonagall and the chair changed into a greyhound, which ran up behind Phyllis Umbridge and weed into her bag. James then quickly transfigured it back into a chair. Sirius just sat there and stared at him withhis mouth open.

"What, I've been able to do that since 5th year. I just don't want anyone else to see cause I'll be able to do nothing for 2 more lessons. You'll be pleased to know that we're going to be covering Animagus's later on in the year."

Sirius came out of his stunned silence with that statement.

"Really, well at least we'll only have half the workload in this class then."

Sirius smirked at James and then started to eat his small stash of food that James had given him. James went back to his favourite past time of watching Lilly.


	5. Tryout Stress

**Chapter Five – Tryout Stress**

The first week at Hogwarts passed quickly without anything really happening. The 7th years already had homework that seemed to be a mile long and James had actually managed to have a conversation with Lilly without it ending in her shouting at him. He could now be found floating in the air sitting on his broom next to Sirius. They were over the quidditch pitch watching the tryouts for the Gryffindor team. James had a group of 4th years flying round the pitch passing the quaffle to each other, to show how good their chaser skills were. He had his head in one of his hands, as they weren't doing too well.

"This is awful, Padfoot! They can't even pass the quaffle to each other! We're going to get creamed by Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

"It's not that bad Prongs."

"Yes it is. You didn't see either of their tryouts. I did. Ravenclaw didn't have to replace anyone so they just trained, and they were good, no they were flawless. And Slytherin have got Collingwood's sister as their new seeker. She caught the snitch within 2 minutes of it being released! 2 minutes Padfoot! And you know how good Avery is as keeper, and your brother is nearly as good as I am as a chaser." James moaned.

Sirius had an odd look on his face as James mentioned his brother.

"Prongs stop stressing out. You did the same thing last year, and we won remember?"

"Yeah, I know we did, but look at them!"

James pointed at the group of 4th years. Two of them had fallen off their brooms and another had a bloody nose from missing the quaffle. James groaned.

"We've only got two more years to look through, cause there's no-one left in our year that can play, and we still need two more chasers. I really hope that Kirley is as good as Megan says he is."

"Look, if the worst happens, we've got Megan who is a really good keeper and Sarah who's a brilliant seeker. So we can win the matches with them."

"What and win all the games without scoring! Ravenclaw and Slytherins seekers are too good to risk that Padfoot. I bet that they're really enjoying themselves."

James pointed towards a group of Slytherins sitting in the stands. They looked like they were hunched over laughing. James made to head over to them, but Sirius suddenly grabbed him and yanked him out of the path of a wayward quaffle. The group of Slytherins laughed even harder.

"Kill me now Padfoot." James said, as he flew off to the other end of the quidditch pitch looking rather dejected.

Sirius went over to the 4th years and told them told stop. He decided that it would be a good idea to let the 5th and 6th years tryout at the same time, to spare James anymore grief. He sent them off in two groups. After a few minutes Sirius flew over to where James sitting.

"Hey, Padfoot, you're going to want to see this."

James turned around and saw a group of students who could actually pass the quaffle, really well in fact. James's mood suddenly lifted.

"We may actually have a chance this year after all." James said with a huge smile on his face.

By the end of the tryouts James's mood was ecstatic. He had found two superb chasers that worked extremely well with him, both 5th years, James Jordon and Kirley McCormack, who really was as good as his sister said. Add to that the new beater Philip Wood and James thought he had a team that was unbeatable.

"You see Padfoot I told you that there was nothing to worry about." James said as he was heading towards the castle. He left Sirius standing there shaking his head.

* * *

Severus, Avery, Jane and Regulus had left the quidditch stands as the 4th year Gryffindors had just stopped trying out. They were now in the Slytherin common room. Avery and Regulus were having a game of wizard's chess and Jane and Severus were watching them.

"It was worth going down to the quidditch pitch to see Potter like that. I can't wait to see the look on his and Blacks faces when they lose to us in the first game." Snape said with a huge grin on his face.

"I bet you really enjoyed seeing Potter fret like that, didn't you Sev?" Avery asked.

"I like to watch any situation where Potter and Black squirm." He replied.

"I wouldn't write them off just yet. I hear that Kirley McCormack is a good chaser, we left before he tried out, and Potter managed to pull it together last year..." Regulus said.

"Nobody asked for your opinion Black!" Snape snarled, cutting Regulus off halfway through his sentence.

"If you'd have let me finished, I was going to say that we're going to be pretty hard to beat this year. Me, Jane and Jenny work really well together, and Avery is one tough keeper to get past. Not to mention we now have a brilliant seeker in Ellie." Regulus replied with a grin plastered across his face when he mentioned Ellie.

"Talking about my sister" Jane said. "She wanted to know when you were actually going to talk to her, instead of just staring. I told her that you were just shy."

Regulus started to turn red and looked down at the chessboard. Avery looked up at this point and stared at Jane.

"Reg, Shy? You've got to be joking. Yesterday he charmed Greta Catchlove from Ravenclaw and Mira Smith from Huffelpuff out of taking house points off Slytherin. And they're both 7th years. Reg here is a little Romeo." Avery stated.

"Well maybe it's just my little sister then. Whatever it is you better talk to her or she's just going to get annoyed with you. I'm going to go to the library and start on that potions essay that Slughorn set us." Jane said.

"I think that I'll join you Jane. Are you coming Avery?" Snape asked.

"I've already done it Sev. I think I'll stay here and finish this game with Reg." Avery replied.

Snape didn't say anything back he just glared at Regulus for a moment and the followed Jane to the library. They sat there in silence for a few moments until Regulus spoke up.

"Have you given anymore thought to what we have to do?"

"I have Reg. It's going to be really difficult to get into the room because we don't have the password and there's no easy way of getting it. We found that just standing outside the door won't help, form those house points you almost lost. We were lucky a teacher didn't come past"

"I've been thinking about that. We could use my invisibility cloak to stand by the door and wait for someone to say the password."

"I didn't know you had an invisibility cloak! They're really rare." Avery said very surprised.

"Yeah, it's been in my family for generations. My dad was going to give it to Sirius but, you know."

"Well it's a good job he gave it to you Reg. That's going to come in really useful."

They sat in silence again for a few minutes. All that was heard was a "Check" from Regulus. He broke the silence again with a question.

"Snape doesn't like me. Does he?"

"Well, no. Don't take it the wrong way though. He's just like that with everybody. The only person he was ever really friends with was Malfoy, and that's only because he worshiped him. He's only really friends with me because of the connections that I have. Then again he may not like you because you look a lot like, and are related to, one of the people that he hates with a passion."

Regulus sat there contemplating what Avery had just said, and also his next move. When he'd made it he asked Avery another question.

"So why exactly are you friends with him?"

"Convenience I suppose. He's excellent at potions, which can come in handy, and he knows more hexes then anyone else in the school, apart from me that is. That can also come in handy in a tight spot. Also being friends with someone who is in Malfoy's pocket can come in useful. And lastly he wants to be one of us, and if I help him join he'll owe me a favour."

Regulus just stared at Avery in stunned silence. Avery spoke up again.

"You see Reg; life is just like a game. In order to survive you need to have control of the right pieces, at the right time, in the right places. It's all about survival. It's not about right or wrong or power, it's about whose left standing in the end. And that's always the smartest one. Some sacrifices are necessary and you have to take orders from people you don't like or agree with at times, but if you don't let your emotions get in your way, and you've got everything in the right place at the end, then you win."

Again Regulus just sat there in silence not knowing what to say. Avery lent forward and moved one of his chess pieces.

"Stick with me Reg. We're smarter then all of them. You and I can beat them all in the end. Oh and that's Checkmate."

Avery gathered his chess pieces and headed off to the library to join Jane and Snape. He left Regulus just sitting at the table thinking to himself. _Maybe Avery's right. It's not to do with right, wrong or power, but who survives. But how am I supposed to ignore my emotions when I'm already falling in love?_


	6. Training Mishap

**Chapter Six – Training Mishap**

Moonlight was reflecting off a slide, the swings were moving gently in the wind and the round-a-bout was spinning slowly around. It would have been like any other park in the country if it weren't for the screams.

"This muggle has outlived its usefulness." A cloaked man said, as he twiddled a wand in his hand. He stopped and pointed it straight at the muggle.

"_Avada Kedavra_"

A green light sped towards the person on the ground and they stopped moving. The cloaked man turned to a group of cloaked people standing behind him and pointed at one of them.

"Now it is your turn"

"But my Lord, I have never done this before." She said between sobs.

"Are you defying me?"

"No. I'll do it."

She turned around and pointed her wand at another person that was shaking and moaning in pain on the ground.

"_Avada Kedavra_"

The moaning stopped.

"Again" said the man.

"_Avada Kedavra_"

Another life taken.

"Again"

"_Avada…_"

"_Stupefy_"

The spell came from behind the girl and she fell to the ground with a thud as everything went black.

The Great Hall was filled with students eating their breakfast. The ceiling above them was releasing a downpour of rain, which never reached them. James and Sirius were sitting at the Gryffindor table waiting for Remus and Peter to come down from their dormitory. They were suddenly showered with droplets of water. Both of them looked up and saw the morning mail being delivered by owls as usual. A tawny owl landed by James and dropped a paper in the empty space next to him and held out a leg. He didn't notice the owl, as he was too busy staring down the table at Lilly.

"Hey, Prongs. I think the owl wants you to pay it."

James turned around to look at the owl and then looked at Sirius.

"I didn't order a paper."

"No, it's not yours; I think that it's Moony's. He always gets one in the morning. Just pay the owl Prongs, I'm sure Moony will give you the money back."

James put his hand into his pocket, drew out a few sickles and put them into the owls pouch. With its money received it flew off into the rain outside. Sirius went back to eating his bacon and James went back to staring at Lilly.

A few moments later Remus and Peter came walking into the great hall and sat down next to James and Sirius. Straight away Remus picked up the paper and started to read it. Staring back at him from the front page was a giant skull with a snake coiled around it, hovering over a park. There were a few wizards and witches walking round the park looking up at the skull and checking the bodies on the ground.

The Headline read: Seven Muggles and One Wizard Killed

"Hey guys, you may want to look at this." He called.

"What is it Moony?" Sirius asked.

"There have been some more murders, like there was over the summer and last year."

"Is it by that Voldemort guy again?" questioned Peter.

"I don't know, I haven't read it yet. I just saw the headline. I'll read it out for you if you want?"

"Yeah, go on." They replied in unison.

"O.K here goes. Last night seven muggles and one wizard, Robert Figg, were murdered in a park in Surrey. It is believed that the wizard who calls himself Lord Voldemort (who many people are starting to refer to as you-know-who), and his followers, known as Death Eaters, were involved. From the evidence surrounding the scene, it appears that Voldemort and the Death Eaters came here to torture and then kill the muggles, but it seems that they were interrupted by, Robert Figg. It seems as though a battle then occurred between Mr. Figg and the Death Eaters, as there are two blown up park benches and some scorched trees. The Minister for Magic has recommended that Mr. Figg should be awarded the order of Merlin 2nd class for his bravery and…"

Remus stopped reading and put the paper back down onto the table. He looked round at the marauders, and they looked like he felt, shocked. Apart from James who looked like he was thinking about something. After a few minutes of silence Sirius spoke up.

"How could they do something like that? They attack people who can't defend themselves, for fun!"

"I know Padfoot, but we can't do anything about it. But maybe now you and Prongs will stop doing the same thing to Snape." Remus said

"That's not the same and you know it! He could defend himself if he was quick enough, those muggles didn't stand a chance! I don't believe you, comparing me to those Death Eaters when you know I hate that kind of thinking."

"Look, I'm sorry Padfoot. I didn't really mean it."

"Yeah, well." Sirius sat there for a moment before he spoke up again. "Anyway I bet you that some of those Slytherins are Death Eaters, I wouldn't put it past Snape to join up, even if it was just to get back at me and Prongs."

Remus and Peter sat there and stared over at the Slytherin table. James was just staring into space, until he suddenly spoke up.

"I bet that's why she looks so miserable. I remember her saying something about her parents living in Surrey."

"What are you going on about Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"Lilly." He replied.

Just as he said her name she got up from where she was sitting and headed out of the hall.

"Look she's going. I'm going to see if she's ok. See you in Potions Padfoot."

With that said he grabbed his bag and headed out of the door after Lilly.

"What was he going on about?" Sirius asked.

"I don't really know, but I've got to get going to History of Magic. So I'll see you both at lunch." Remus replied as he got up and left the hall.

"I guess I'll just go up to the common room." Peter said.

"You could come with me to Potions, it's on your way Wormtail."

"Sure, why not. I've got nothing else to do."

* * *

"Lilly. Hey Lilly. Wait up!" James shouted down the corridor.

Lilly just ignored him and carried on walking towards the girl's bathroom. James ran down the corridor, grabbed her arm and turned her around.

"Lilly I wanted to…"

"Not now Potter! I'm not in the mood!" She shouted at him, cutting him of mid sentence.

"I was just trying to ask if you were O.K."

Lilly sighed. "I'm sorry Potter; I'm just a bit worried at the moment. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"It's alright." James reassured her. "I know that your parents live in Surrey and you're worried that they were the muggles in that attack in the paper."

"You remembered where my parents lived?" Lilly asked slightly surprised.

"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I? I just wanted to check that you were O.K. and if you needed anything?"

"No James, I'm fine. I just need some time alone for a few minutes. I'll see you in Potions." She replied as she headed into the girl's bathroom.

James couldn't help but smile to himself as he walked down the hall towards his Potions class. _She called me James; she's never done that before._ He thought.

* * *

Lilly came into the Potions class just before it started and sat down next to Snape, who was her work partner for the year. Professor Slughorn was at the front of the class.

"Now that we are all here I shall begin. Today we shall be making Veritaserum, or should I say attempting to make, as it is a difficult potion. Now I would like you all to get out your copies of Advanced Potion Making and get to work. I shall be walking around the class, and will offer help to anyone who asks."

There was a loud rustling noise as everyone in the class went into their bags to get out their books. When this was done Sirius turned to James.

"Why did you go running off after breakfast?" he asked.

"Well, I had to go and see if Lilly was alright."

"Did she shout at you, as usual?"

"NO! Well, she did at first, but then she was nice to me. And she called me James." He said with a huge grin on his face.

"Wow, you're making progress then." Sirius said while rolling his eyes.

"I know" James replied missing the sarcasm. "She seemed a bit worried about her parents though. She shouldn't have to sit next to Snivellus today, she needs a break."

Sirius was about to reply but he was interrupted by the figure of Horace Slughorn.

"Now, now boys. You should have started already."

"Sorry Professor." They both said.

"That's alright." He said with a smile on his face. "Now when am I going to see you two at one of my dinners? I've been trying to get you to come along for six years now."

"Well professor, I'm not going to be able to come to any this year. I'm going to be really busy with my head boy duties, and being Quidditch Captain." James stated.

"Ah, yes, well that is understandable." He said looking a little disappointed. "What about you Mr. Black? I've managed to convince your brother to come along."

Sirius sat there looking stone faced at the mention of his brother. James spoke up for him instead.

"Sirius is going to be helping me with Quidditch, as he's vice-captain. And because it's our last year we want to make sure that we win the cup. So we're going to be very busy."

Sirius just nodded his head to this.

"Well I expect Gryffindor to win the cup then if you're going to be putting in so much effort. Now you should start your potions, I'm going to check on the rest of the class."

The Professor turned away from the table and started to walk round the rest of the class. Within five minutes the class was filled with smoke and fumes from all the different cauldrons, and only one Potion seemed to be going right.

"We don't add the Dragons blood for another 5 minutes Lilly." Snape said as he pulled her hand away from the cauldron. "Are you alright? That's the third time I've had to correct you on something today"

"No Severus, I'm not alright. That attack on the muggles last night was near where my parents live, and I don't know if they're O.K." Lilly replied.

"I'm sure that there fine. You would have been notified if they weren't."

"You're probably right. I wasn't the only person affected by this. I saw your friend Jane in the toilets and it looked like she had just been sick."

"Really"

"Yes. All this stuff is horrible; I hope that this Voldemort guy is caught soon."

* * *

Avery and Regulus were sitting in the Slytherin common room playing a game of chess. Avery was waving his hand in front of Regulus's face trying to get his attention, but it wasn't working. He followed his gaze and found that he was staring at Ellie Collingwood, who was sitting in a corner reading a book.

"You know Reg; you could always go over and talk to her."

This statement had its desired effect, and Regulus quickly turned around to look at Avery.

"W...what are you talking about?" he stammered.

"It doesn't matter. It's your go."

Regulus looked down at the board for a few minutes and made his move.

"You know Reg, I've been thinking about that attack in the paper, and it sounds like a training mission that I had to do to prove that I was committed to the cause. Apart from the getting interrupted part."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. So you think that they've got a new student from school then?"

"Yeah, it could be. But then why hasn't my father told me?"

"You got me. I did notice something earlier though."

"What was that?"

"Well Jane fell asleep at dinner, and she looked a bit peaky earlier."

"You've got a point there, Reg. Also Snape said that she was being sick earlier in the toilets."

"So it could be her then. I remember after my first mission, I was throwing up all of the next day, and I couldn't sleep for two days after."

They both sat in silence for a while pondering over their new information. Jane walked through the portrait hole and headed up the girl's staircase. Regulus and Avery watched her head up the stairs.

"If it is her, I'm more worried about why _she_ hasn't told us, then why your father hasn't." Regulus said.


	7. Getting There

**Chapter Seven – Getting There**

Professor Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office stroking Fawkes, his pet Phoenix, while he was in deep conversation with some of the portraits of old headmasters on his wall. A knock on his door brought him out of his conversation.

"Come in."

The door opened and Regulus Black walked into the room with a look of awe on his face. He had never been in the headmaster's office before. As he walked in he looked around the room at all the portraits on the wall, at the little trinkets on Dumbledore's desk, at Fawkes, at the sorting hat that was sitting on a shelf, and at Godric Gryffindor's sword, which was in a glass case.

"Ah. Mr. Black. Would you please take a seat."

Dumbledore motioned to the seat that was opposite him in front of his desk. Regulus walked towards the desk and sat down. The seat shuffled towards the desk of its own accord. Regulus was looking over Dumbledore's shoulder at the shelf where the sorting hat and sword were kept.

"Now Mr. Black, Professor McGonagall told me that you requested to see me. Is that right?"

Regulus tore his gaze away from the shelf and towards Dumbledore.

"Yes professor that is correct."

Dumbledore smiled at Regulus and asked. "What is it that only I can do for you?"

"Well Professor. It's about You-Know-Who."

Dumbledore looked at Regulus and with a twinkle in his eye said "No Mr. Black. I'm afraid I don't."

A frown crossed Regulus's face. _He's going to make me say his name. Maybe he isn't afraid of him._

"It's about V-Voldemort." Regulus shuddered at the name.

"Ah, well. You should not be afraid to say his name Mr. Black, he is no more different then you or I. What are you worried about?"

Regulus shifted uncomfortably in his seat and his hand twitched underneath his cloak.

"Well you see Professor I think that someone inside the castle might be helping him."

Again Dumbledore looked straight into Regulus's eyes and asked him "What makes you think that?"

"It's just some things that the Slytherins are saying, and the night of those attacks last week I saw a cloaked person walking around the grounds."

"I really wouldn't pay attention to what your fellow housemates are saying Mr. Black; most of them will most likely be trying to impress people. As for the person you saw walking around the grounds, it was probably Hagrid doing his ground keeping duties. However I will take into account what you have said. Now are you sure that there isn't anything else you want to talk to me about?"

Again Dumbledore looked straight into Regulus's eyes, and again Regulus shifted uncomfortably in his seat and his arm twitched underneath his cloak.

"No Professor that's all I wanted to talk to you about."

"Very well. You and your fellow Slytherin's must be worried, as you are the third one I have had in here in two weeks. Normally I don't see any throughout the school year."

Regulus looked surprised. "Three sir?"

"Yes. You, Mr. Avery, and Miss Collingwood. Although I must admit Mr. Avery just wanted to talk to me about the Quidditch season. However I do not want to bore you with details, so if you have said all you wanted to, you may leave."

"Thank you for your time professor." Regulus took one last look around the room and walked out.

"I don't think that you should trust him Ablus. He was lying too you."

Dumbledore turned his head towards an elderly witch in one of the portraits.

"Thank you Phillis. I know that he was hiding something, unfortunately he is skilled in Occlumency."

"At least there is one Black to be proud of at this school. I'm glad he didn't turn out like his useless brother."

"That will be enough Phineas. And you're wrong; he's more like his brother then he lets on. There is hope for him yet."

* * *

James, Sirius, Sarah and Megan were walking back from a hard nights work on the quidditch pitch. They were all wet thorough as it had been raining hard all night.

"That was a great practice guys." James said smiling round at every one. "Sarah you just keep getting better, which I didn't think was possible. Sirius, you and Philip work brilliantly together. Meghan you were excellent as always, and your brother is amazing he works well with JJ and me. If we carry on playing like this Slytherin won't stand a chance when we play them."

"Did you here that Avery went to see Dumbledore to try and get our game changed?" Sirius asked

"Really. Wow he must be worried about us then."

James had a huge grin on his face all the way to the Gryffindor common room. When they all got inside they joined the rest of the team at the fireplace to warm themselves up. Slowly the team members went up to their dormitories till there was only James, Sirius and Sarah left.

"I'm going to head up now, you coming James?" Sirius asked.

"I'll be up in a minute. I want to talk to Sarah for a bit."

"Ok, but don't do anything that I wouldn't do." Sirius said as he turned to walk up the stairs.

James grabbed a cushion and threw it at him. He then turned back to Sarah.

"So did Lilly find out if her parents were ok? Cause I haven't had any time to ask her myself."

"Yeah they're fine. She got an Owl from them the day after the attack saying that they weren't anywhere near that park. But what do you mean by you haven't had any time? What about all the time you've been spending with her for head duties?"

"Well, um." James looked a little sheepish. "I didn't want to bring it up in case it upset her and I thought that she was going to tell me when she found out."

Sarah let out a sigh and shook her head.

"If you had asked her it would have showed that you cared about her."

James looked down at the floor and started to shake his head.

"I'm never going to get the hang of this."

Sarah smiled at him. "You're not doing as badly as you think."

James looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well she's talking about you more often and in a good way too. She keeps saying about your change in attitude towards her. If you carry on like this she may even think that you're actually nice! I think you're getting there."

James sat there in silence smiling to himself. Sarah got up off the couch.

"I'm going to head up to bed now. I'm really tired after that practice. So I'll see you tomorrow."

She headed over to the girls staircase and turned around when she got there. She saw James lying down on the couch with his hands behind his head grinning up at the ceiling. She shook her head, chuckled to herself and carried on up the stairs.

* * *

Regulus walked up to the entrance of the Slytherin common room, he didn't notice he was there until he almost walked into the wall. He was too deep in thought.

"Parselmouth."

The entrance opened up and he walked through still mulling things over in his head. He was so distracted he did see the girl in front of him and walked straight into her.

"Umph!"

Regulus was about to shout at the girl and tell her to watch where she was going, when he looked up and saw that he had bumped into Ellie. He turned a deep shade of red.

"Oh, erm, I'm really err sorry. Let me…let me help you with that."

He quickly bent down and started to help her pick up her things. He handed them back to her in a messy pile.

"Here you are."

"Thanks." She said and hurried out of the portrait hole, but not before he noticed that she had a tinge of red in her cheeks too. He walked over to where Avery and Snape were sitting slightly happier then when he came in.

"That was real smooth Black." Snape sneered.

"Yeah well, at least I'm not chasing after Evans. You don't stand a chance against Potter." Regulus shot back.

Snape was going for his wand but Avery stood up between them.

"Not a good idea Severus. Don't you have that Defence Against the Dark Arts essay to finish?"

Snape shot a glare at Regulus and then walked off mumbling to himself and scaring a couple of first years on the way up to his dormitory.

"What did you do that for Avery? I could have handled him easily."

"I know you could have, but I was worried that you would have sent him to the hospital wing in a box. Anyway how did it go with Dumbledore?"

"Not well at all."

"Why? What happened?"

Regulus looked round the room to make sure they were out of earshot of every one and continued.

"Well I tried to transfigure them and it didn't work and I tried to make them invisible, but that didn't help either."

Avery sat in thought for a moment before he spoke again.

"Well next time we're going to have to go in there when Dumbledore's not there and try to take them out. Like during a Quidditch game. We've got two passwords so we should be able to work out the connection and figure out the next one."

"Sure, but we'll have to wait until the Hufflepuff Vs Ravenclaw game which is at the end of November. And that's like two and a half months away!"

"Well we shall have to inform the Dark Lord of our progress and tell him our plans."

Regulus didn't look too happy about Avery's last statement. He looked like he was trying to decide whether or not to tell Avery something.

"He may already know."

Avery jerked his head away from the staircase and back towards Regulus with a shocked look on his face.

"What?"

"When I was with Dumbledore earlier he mentioned that Jane went to see him during the week. Add that to the way she was acting last week after the attack and I think that she's the new recruit, and that she's been told to check up on us."

"Well were just going to have to find out for sure. Next Quidditch practice we have to corner her and lift up her left sleeve. That way we'll know."

"OK. There's something else you should know too. I think that Dumbledore's getting suspicious. He mentioned that 3 of us had been to see him in the last 2 weeks, which he said was unusual. And he tried to use Legilimency on me."

"Oh great. What else could go wrong? We're just going to have to be more careful from now on."

Regulus was about to reply but someone interrupted him.

"Are you going to come do the essay too Avery?" asked Snape

"Sure. We can have our game of chess later Reg."

Avery grabbed his bag and headed off out of the portrait hole with Snape to the library. Regulus sat there and stared at the portrait hole for a few moments before he went up the staircase to his dormitory. He was going to practice a few games of chess before Avery came back.


	8. Cornered

**Chapter Eight – Cornered**

The last week of September arrived upon Hogwarts and it brought with it wet and windy weather. Avery, Snape and Regulus were sitting at the Slytherin breakfast table when the morning post arrived. A black owl landed in front of Avery looking like it had just flown through a tornado. It dropped the letter it was holding and flew off to find shelter in the Owlery.

"Who's the letter from Avery?" Regulus asked.

"It looked like my fathers owl, but I don't know why he would be writing to me."

Avery picked up the letter and quickly skimmed through it. A look of concern quickly flashed across his face but Snape didn't catch it, Regulus however did.

"Should we go and get ready for our Quidditch practice?"

"Why would you want to go now?" Snape queried, "You're not practicing till the afternoon. In fact I'm surprised that you're going to be going at all in this weather!"

"Of course we're still going to practice. We'd still play if there was a match, and we are going early because I'm helping Avery with some new strategies."

"He's right Severus, we should go. So have fun with that potions assignment you've got to do."

Avery grabbed the letter and he and Regulus headed out of the Great hall and towards the Slytherin common room. When they reached the safety of the empty common room Regulus turned to face Avery.

"So what does it say? You didn't look to happy about it." He asked

Avery didn't reply he just handed Regulus the letter. Regulus opened it up and started to read.

_Dear Son,_

_I am highly disappointed in your progress with the task that you've been assigned. You know that he does not take kindly to failures, and neither_ do I. _Consider this your one and only warning. If I don't hear of any improvement I will administer my own punishment before you get passed onto him. You and Mr. Black are to meet up with Bellatrix and Lucius on your next Hogsmeade visit. Maybe they can teach you how to properly carry out a mission._

_P. Avery_

Regulus screwed the letter up into a ball and threw it into the fireplace. He turned to Avery, who looked like he was considering something.

"What are we going to do?" Regulus asked

"Well it's obvious that they've been told about our slow progress. Jane must have sent them a letter after seeing that we hadn't moved them from Dumbledore's office."

"I'd figured that much out Avery. But what are we going to do about her and that meeting we've got to go to?

"Well it's simple. This afternoon we're going to have to corner her after Quidditch practice and convince her to withhold certain information form the Dark Lord. Or we aren't going to last much longer. And we'll just have to go to that meeting."

"How are we going to convince Jane to do that?"

"You just leave that to me."

Avery turned around and headed up the boys staircase to his dormitory. Regulus just stood there with a look of concern on his face he didn't like the look on Avery's face when he left. _How did I get into this mess! _he thought.

* * *

The wet and windy weather had gotten worse as the afternoon approached, but Avery still took the Slytherin team out to practice, even with all their protests. It wasn't going well.

Ellie Collingwood was finding it hard to spot the snitch, as most of her effort was concentrated on not getting blown off her broom. The two beaters, Aubrey and Cooper, were covered with bruises. As no matter how hard they hit the bludgers, they kept getting blown back into them. Regulus, Jane and Jennifer hadn't managed to string a pass together, as it was so wet and windy that they could hardly make each other out and even when they did the Quaffle got blown off target.

Avery was hovering by the goalposts waving his arms madly and shouting as loud as he could, trying to get his teams attention. In the end he gave this up as a bad idea and put his wand to his throat.

"PRATICE IS OVER. GO BACK TO THE CHANGING ROOMS." Avery's voice boomed across the Quidditch pitch.

The Slytherin team flew back to the changing rooms and trudged inside looking like a group of drowned rats. Avery stormed in later, with the box of Quidditch balls.

"That has to have been the most pointless 20 minutes of my life!" He said as he slammed the box on the ground.

"Don't get to upset Avery, there's nothing you could do about the weather." Cooper pointed out.

"I know that I can't control the weather. But we've just wasted a Quidditch practice!" Avery snapped back.

"Yeah but its only one. It's not like it'll make much difference." Aubrey stated.

"What do you mean it won't make much difference!?! We're going to need all the practices we can get. Potter's got his team running smoothly, they're practically flawless, and Coopey has moulded Ravenclaw into one of their best teams in years. And thanks to those two I can't book the pitch for another practice until next week!" Avery replied, his cheeks so red he looked like he'd just drunk a pepper-up potion.

Aubrey and Cooper grabbed their things and dashed back out into the rain heading towards the castle. They knew better then to stay around and get Avery more annoyed.

Regulus was sitting in the corner looking at the spot where Aubrey and Cooper had just been, smirking to himself. Avery turned around and glared at him.

"What are you smirking at?"

"You. I don't know if you've noticed but every time you get angry people seem to move away from you. Is there any reason for that?" Regulus asked.

"Yeah there is. There have been a few incidents."

"Like?"

"Well in my 1st year I transfigured Malfoy's hair into fire when he kept on bullying me. He hasn't really liked me since, always looking for revenge. I got 2 weeks detention for it. There've been a few more down the years."

Regulus was trying desperately to control his laughter.

"I would have loved to see that! Malfoys face would have been priceless."

"Yeah well, he deserves whatever he gets. He's not worth the air he breathes."

"And I thought that I was the only one who thought that."

Their conversation was interrupted when Jennifer, Jane and Ellie walked in from the girls changing room.

"Your not moaning about Malfoy again Avery?" asked Jennifer.

"No I wasn't we were just talking about him, that's all." Avery replied.

"Well, we were all going to go up to the castle to get some dinner. Do you want to join me…erm us?" She asked smiling at Avery.

"Me and Reg need to have a word with Jane first, but we'll join you afterwards."

Jennifer's smile fell from her face and she shot a glare at Jane, and then headed to the castle with Ellie. Avery turned around and looked at Jane with an icy glare.

"We need to talk."

Jane looked round the tent, her eyes darting between both of the exits. She saw Regulus get up from the bench and walk over to block the exit to the castle, she had been found out and she knew it. She went for her wand but Avery was too quick.

"_Expelliarmus_."

Jane's wand flew out of her hand and landed near where Regulus was standing. He picked it up and put it into his pocket.

"_Incarcerous_"

Ropes shot out from no-where and wrapped themselves around Jane so she couldn't move her arms or legs. Avery waved his wand again and she flew back into the wall and just hung there. He was about to cast another spell but Regulus interrupted him.

"Hadn't we better check that it _is_ her?" he asked

"Why? I'm certain that it is."

"We have to be sure. If it's not her we could get into a lot of trouble."

"If it's not her I can just Obliviate her memory. But, I suppose that you're right. Lift up her sleeve."

Regulus walked over to Jane and pulled her left sleeve up her arm. Both of them looked down and saw the dark mark burnt into her skin.

"Now we know for sure." Regulus said.

Jane looked back and forth between them both with a worried expression on her face. She was struggling against the ropes trying to break free.

"Its no use struggling, you can't break them without your wand. Now, you're going to tell us why you've been spying on us."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jane replied.

Avery made a slashing movement with his wand and a gash appeared on Jane's cheek. She let out yelp as blood started to pour out of it.

"You're lying. We know that you've been in Dumbledore's office to check on our progress, and that you've been sending reports back to the Dark Lord." Avery stated.

"I can't tell you why, he'll torture me if he finds out." Jane stammered

Avery made another slashing movement with his wand and this time a bigger gash appeared on her arm. Blood started dripping out of it immediately.

"You should be more worried about me at the moment. I can carry on cutting you, heal you back up and then start all over again. It's time for you to pick a side Jane."

"What do you mean? I'm on your side you've seen the mark!"

"There's more than two sides too choose from. Reg and I aren't in this by choice, we've been forced into this position, and I think you have too. So we're looking out for ourselves. We're following the Dark Lord now because we have too. We don't care about his ideals; we're just trying to live through this. So we have to get rid of anything that gets in the way of that."

"OK I'll tell you, but if he finds out he'll kill all of us!"

"He won't find out. Reg and I are skilled in Occlumency, thanks to our fathers, and you can keep sending your reports just make them more favourable to us."

"Fine. Can you heal me and get rid of these ropes? Then I'll tell you."

Avery made a weaving movement with his wand and the cuts joined back together and disappeared. And with another flick of his wand the ropes vanished and Jane fell to the floor. Regulus went over and helped her to her feet.

"So why is he so set on these reports from you?" He asked.

"The only thing that he would tell me is that what he wants from Dumbledore's office could help him ensure victory against Dumbledore and the Ministry. So he wanted me to let him know how you were doing, as he didn't trust you two to be truthful in your own reports." Jane replied.

"Hmm. You should go wash that blood off your face and arm. We'll meet you in the Great Hall for dinner."

Jane grabbed her broom and bag and ran out into the rain up towards the castle.

"Well what do you think?" Regulus asked.

"She could come in useful, so I'm not going to Obliviate her any time soon." Avery replied

"I actually meant about what the Dark Lord said."

"Oh. I thought that he gave us this assignment to see if we could be useful. You know another test. But now that we know they've got an importance I think that we should keep one of them for ourselves, if we ever manage to get them. So we've got a bargaining chip later on in case anything happens to us."

"I wonder what he wants them for."

"I don't know. They seem pretty ordinary to me, but they must do something."

"Yeah I suppose."

Avery and Regulus stood in silence for a while thinking about the information they had just learned. Avery bent down and picked up his broom and bag.

"Come on; let's go get something to eat."

They both headed out into the rain back toward the castle.


	9. Marauder Mischief

**Chapter Nine – Marauder Mischief**

James, Sirius, Peter and Remus were sitting in the library hunched over a table looking at a piece of parchment. The Marauders Map.

"We need to place two of them Padfoot, for maximum effect. If we time it properly we may even get Slughorn."

"OK Prongs but where are we going to put them both?"

"I'd say about here and here." James replied pointing at two places on the parchment that was showing a corridor that had the label Dungeons floating near it.

"Yeah, you're right. That would work. What do you think Moony?"

"That should have the desired effect. But I still think this is a bad idea."

"Relax Moony. The schools morale's been a bit low after all these attacks being reported. So they need a bit of marauder mischief to brighten the place up!" James stated with a smirk on his face.

"Prongs is right. This is going to be brilliant. I can't wait to see it." Peter said as he was bouncing up and down on his seat.

"Calm down Wormtail. You'll wet yourself." Sirius jibed. "I do have one question though Prongs. How are we going to do this without Evans finding out that it's us? She always does."

"That Padfoot is the best part of my plan. We're doing this when I'll be with Lilly on the way to see Dumbledore, for a meeting. It's going to be triggered when I walk past the statue of the one-eyed witch, so she can't possibly blame me, or us. Isn't that right Moony?"

Remus however wasn't paying attention to what James, Sirius and Peter were saying. Something else had caught his eye. He had noticed a small dot on the map labelled Jane Collingwood alone on the Astronomy tower. Sirius had noticed him looking at the map so he turned to look as well and spotted what he thought Remus was looking at.

"Speaking of Evans she's heading to the library right now."

"Oh Merlin!" James exclaimed.

He pointed his wand at the map and whispered. "Mischief managed."

The map of Hogwarts castle and all the tiny dots with labels disappeared, and it looked like an ordinary piece of parchment again.

"Quick, get out some books and parchment so it looks like we're working." James ordered.

There was a lot of rustling and movement, and they all had the books and parchment out just as Lilly entered the library and headed over to them.

"What are you three up too?" Lilly asked suspiciously.

"Lilly, you can't count. There are four of us!"

"I can count perfectly. There are only three of you. I saw Remus leaving the library just as I came in. He looked like he was in a hurry."

"I wonder where he…"

"It doesn't matter at the moment. We've got to go and see Dumbledore now or we'll be late." Lilly said cutting James off.

"Ok I'm coming."

James grabbed his bag and books and stood up. Checking that Lilly had her back to him, he slid Sirius the blank parchment and his invisibility cloak and mouthed "Go set it up quickly." He then turned around and followed Lilly out of the Library.

* * *

As soon as Remus saw where Jane was on the map, he knew that something was wrong with her, because people only went to the astronomy tower for one reason. So he had run out of the library, passing Lilly on the way, and headed straight up to the tower. When he reached the door at the top of the tower he paused, as he could hear sobbing coming from the other side of it. Slowly he pushed the door open and saw Jane huddled in a corner crying. He tentatively made his way over to Jane and the crying stopped. Jane looked up and stared at Remus.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"N-Nothing." She sobbed.

"That's a lie. I saw you crying. Plus this is the Astronomy tower; people only come up here for one reason. To be alone. Either as a couple or on their own. And I don't see anyone else up here with you so. What's the matter?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

She stood up and walked away from Remus to the other side of the tower, to gaze across the grounds. Remus shook his head, walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Well if you ever want to talk about it I'm here for you."

With that said Remus turned around and started to walk towards the door that led back down inside the castle.

"Wait!" Jane called out.

Remus turned around and watched Jane slowly walking towards him. She stopped a few inches away from him.

"It's nothing that's really important. It's silly really. I'm just worried over quidditch and about my mom."

"Well like I said, if you want to talk about it…"

Remus didn't get to finish what he was saying as Jane started to cry again. He pulled her close to him in a tight embrace, rubbing his hand up and down her back while she was crying into his shoulder. They didn't get to stay in that position for long as a loud scream form inside the castle made them both jump. They both stood there staring at each other for a few moments until Remus finally spoke.

"I think that's my cue to leave. Are you going to be ok?" He asked.

Jane nodded her head and he turned around and ran down the stairs back into the castle.

* * *

Remus was running through the corridors towards the noise of the commotion. He ran across the entrance hall, right through Nearly Headless Nick who exclaimed "Well really, no manners at all." and down into the dungeons. He skidded to a halt in front of a corridor of chaos. Some students were walking around with their hands over their noses and some had a bubble over their head, but all of them were covered in red and gold with the words "Gryffindor for the cup" plastered on their arms, front and backs. Remus had trouble keeping a straight face, and when he saw Professor Slughorn covered in red and gold he couldn't help himself and burst out laughing.

"See, I'm not the only person who finds this funny." He heard James saying in between laughs from close by.

"But he's not the head Boy. You're supposed to set an example." Lilly snapped.

"He's a prefect though!" James pointed out.

"You're right. Remus, stop laughing and go help them." She nagged.

"W-what h-happened." Remus asked between sniggers.

"Well, we weren't here when it happened, we got here about 10 minutes before you did, but I've asked around and put together what happened from that. Supposedly while the 5th years were in their potions lesson dungbombs went off, so they all had to leave the classroom. When they did two more explosions went off and this happened." Lilly replied pointing at the students.

"That is quite correct Miss Evans."

James, Lilly and Remus spun around and saw, to their surprise, Professor Dumbledore standing behind them. He too was covered head too toe in red and gold with "Gryffindor for the cup" written on both his arms and on his chest. At the sight of this James and Remus burst out laughing again, having to use each other for support to keep standing.

"I'm sorry sir. They really should know better." Lilly said with a small grin playing across her face.

"That's all right Miss Evans. You need a good laugh once in a while. And I must say this will help school morale, which has been a bit low in recent weeks." Dumbledore said with a smile on his face.

"What were you doing down here sir? Me and Lilly were on our way to a meeting with you before this happened." James asked, as he now had full control over him self.

"Well Mr. Potter, I came too have a quick word with Professor Slughorn before our meeting, and I got caught up in this." Dumbledore replied.

"Have you not tried to clean yourself off sir? Remus asked.

"That I have Mr. Lupin. But any cleaning spell I try seems to multiply the words. I suspect that an extra enchantment is needed to rid them. It is an ingenious spell; I must applaud the culprits when I find them." Dumbledore turned to both Remus and James and gave them each a wink. "Now if you'll excuse me I must tell Horace to stop trying to clean the students, or we'll never get the words off."

Dumbledore strode past the three students and over to Professor Slughorn, who immediately stopped casting whatever spell it was that he was about to cast. Remus and James burst out laughing again and Lilly walked away shaking her head.


	10. Gryffindor Colours

**Chapter Ten – Gryffindor**** Colours**

Regulus entered the Great Hall, sat down at the Slytherin table and started loading his plate up with food. He looked down the table at his fellow 5th years and noticed that they were still covered in red and gold. He looked over at the Ravenclaw table and noticed that the 5th years there were also still covered. He looked up at the head table and saw that Slughorn was also still covered in red and gold, and he was trying to make himself as small as possible, as he seemed to have the most "Gryffindors for the cup" plastered all over him. Dumbledore was in the same position as Slughorn, but he seemed to be enjoying himself, as he had a big smile on his face.

"What did I miss?"

Regulus turned around and saw Avery taking a seat next to him. He was looking around the hall with a smirk on his face, at all the students with red and gold on them.

"There was a little accident in potions." Regulus replied.

"How come you're not in Gryffindor colours like the rest of your class then?" Avery asked.

"Because I know how to get rid of it. Unlike the rest of them."

"So you're smarter then Dumbledore and Slughorn?"

"Slughorn yes, he kept on trying to clean himself even after the words started multiplying. Dumbledore no, I think he knows how to get rid of it, he just wants to leave it on for some reason." Regulus replied

"He probably thinks it will help school morale. So how do you know how to get rid of it?"

"Think about it Avery. The only people who would try and do something like this would be my brother, Potter and their friends. And as much as I hate to admit it, I know my brother, so I know what charm to use to get it off."

Avery looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw that Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all had huge grins on their faces.

"You're right Reg, you can tell by just looking at them that they did it. But I bet they won't get punished for it."

"Of course they won't. There's no proof that they did anything. None of them were anywhere near the dungeons when it happened."

"I hate to admit it but the four, well three, of them are too good at stuff like that. So are you going to tell anyone else how to get rid of the colours?"

Regulus looked up the Slytherin table, over to the Ravenclaw table and at the Head table, and then turned back to Avery.

"Only if they ask me for help. Which, lets face it, no one will. The Ravenclaw's won't ask a Slytherin for help, Slughorn won't ask a student for help, and our housemates won't ask for help because they're too proud."

Avery nodded his head. "You're right. So they're all just going to have to wait until Dumbledore decides to clean it off."

"Yeah, that won't probably be until tonight or tomorrow morning. Well Avery, I've finished so I'm heading to the common room. I'll see you later."

Regulus got up from the table and with one last look around the room he shook his head and headed out of the Great Hall and towards the Slytherin common room.

* * *

James and Remus were sitting in two big squishy armchairs by the roaring fire in the Gryffindor common room. They were watching Sirius and Peter playing exploding snap. Sirius as usual was winning.

"Do you think that Wormtail will ever figure out that Padfoot cheats at exploding snap?" Remus asked

"I don't think so; he concentrates too hard on trying to beat him." James replied with a smile on his face.

"I can't believe that you managed to get away with the prank without Lilly catching you."

"What do you mean me Moony? It was a…"

"Why did you call Remus Moony?" Lilly asked as she cut James off mid sentence.

"Huh, what. Where did you come from?" James asked with a shocked look on his face.

"I was over there talking too Sarah and Megan. I came over to talk to you two about our patrols tonight." Lilly replied.

"Right. What about them?"

"Well, we're each going to patrol a different floor, to make sure that there aren't any follow up pranks to the one this evening. Although I've got to say that it was a pretty impressive prank. Even Dumbledore was impressed by it."

"Yeah it was really good wasn't it, and Dumbledore did seem to like it." James said with a smile on his face.

"But what I want to know is how you managed to set up the dungbombs without anyone noticing, and how you set it off when you were three floors above with me." Lilly asked with a smirk, as she shot a quick glance to Remus.

"Oh that was easy. We put a disillusionment charm on the dungbombs and hid them in the classroom; we also put on an extra charm so that they would let off smoke to make sure the classroom would clear out. The next charm was set to go off a minute after the dungbombs went off. And the whole thing was triggered when I walked passed the statue of the one-eyed witch. Pretty clever don't you think?" James replied marvelling at how clever he had been.

James turned to Remus and saw that he had his head in his hands and was shaking it from side to side. His smile started to slowly fade away when he turned to look at Lilly and she had an even bigger smile on her face.

"I knew it was you." She said triumphantly. "I'm going to see Dumbledore."

She turned around and headed out of the portrait hole.

"Lilly wait!" James shouted.

He jumped up off his seat and ran out of the common room after Lilly. Leaving Remus laughing to himself about how stupid his friend was.

* * *

When Regulus had got to the common room he went straight up to his dormitory, sat down on his bed, picked up a small tattered book and started to write in it. He was so engrossed by what he was writing that he didn't hear a knock on the dormitory door. He only looked up when he heard the door close, and he saw a pretty girl with long brown hair and green eyes staring at him.

"Ellie!" Regulus squeaked. "W-what are you doing in here? This is the boy's dormitory!"

"I know. I just wanted to ask you something." Ellie replied with a slight tinge of red creeping across her cheeks.

"How did you know I was up here?"

"I saw you leave the table and I followed you up here." Ellie said looking at the floor.

"Oh. Well what is it you wanted to ask me?"

"Well I noticed that you weren't covered in this stuff" Ellie said pointing at her red and gold robes. "like the rest of our class, and I wanted to know if you would help me get it off?"

"Yeah I can do that. Just stand still for a moment."

Regulus put his small book down on his bedside table and pushed himself off his bed. He waved his wand through the air and tapped Ellie on her head. Starting from her head and cascading down her body, the red and gold started to flake off and fall to the floor. With another wave of his wand the pile of flakes on the floor vanished.

"There, it's done." Regulus said with a smile on his face.

"Thank you Regulus. I didn't know that you could do non-verbal magic already. We're not supposed to start that until 6th year!" Ellie pointed out.

"Well I learnt how to do it in the summer; my parents thought it would be useful. And call me Reg, only my parents and idiot cousin call me Regulus."

"Ok Reg. I owe you one. So if there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know."

Ellie turned around and walked out of the dormitory. Regulus stood where he was for a few seconds before he made up his mind and went after her. He caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Ellie, wait! There is something you could do." He paused and took a deep breath. "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

Ellie stood still in shock for a few moments, and then a smile spread across her face.

"I would love to Reg." She replied and she kissed him on the cheek, and walked off to sit by the fire.

Regulus was standing there with a dazed look on his face until he saw Avery waving him over to where they normally played chess. He walked over and sat down opposite him.

"What were you doing in your dormitory with Ellie, Reg?" Avery asked with a grin plastered across his face.

"I was just helping her out of those Gryffindor colours. Now stop smirking at me and let's have a game of chess."

Regulus was too busy setting up his side of the chessboard to notice Jane glaring at him from her seat next too the fire.

* * *

The Slytherin common room was almost empty, there were only two people who were left. Regulus was one of them. He was mulling over his latest defeat to Avery at chess when his thoughts were interrupted by Jane, who sat down opposite him.

"Hello Reg, what were you doing with my sister in you dormitory earlier?"

Regulus looked up at Jane startled to see her there.

"She wanted my help with getting rid of the Gryffindor colours." Regulus replied.

"It looked a bit more then that when you were at the bottom of the stairs, she gave you a kiss on the cheek."

"Well, you see I asked her to go to Hogsmeade with me and she said yes." He explained

Jane frowned at Regulus. "I don't want her going with you."

"What! Why not?" Regulus asked indignantly. "A few weeks ago you couldn't wait for me to talk to her."

"I've changed my mind after what you and Avery pulled last week."

"Look that was Avery's idea. I just wanted to talk to you, not torture you. Anyway we had to do something, if we hadn't you would of got us into trouble for not doing well on an impossible task."

They both sat in silence. Regulus looked like he was making his mind up over something in his head until he finally spoke again.

"Look me and Avery really don't want to be in this position but we are, and all I'm trying to do is survive. Avery on the other hand wants to somehow manipulate everyone so he ends up the winner."

"How did you end up in all this anyway Reg?" Jane asked.

"Well I suppose it's because of my brother. After he left my parents wanted the perfect Slytherin son to make up for him turning out to be such a disappointment. So my idiot cousin Bellatrix suggested that I join and my parents encouraged her to do it. I don't know who I resent more, Sirius, Bellatrix or my parents."

There was a long pause after Regulus's rant until he asked Jane a question that she had been waiting for.

"How did you end up in this mess? Cause I thought you had muggle grandparents?"

"I do. It's my father's fault that I'm in this mess."

"I thought that your father left after Ellie was born?"

"He had, but he came back a few months ago trying to get me to join. In the end they had to torture my mom before I would." Jane replied with a tear in her eye.

"Who is he? Maybe I could get Avery to add him to his revenge list."

"I don't know if you'll know him but his last name is Wilkes."

"Wilkes!" Regulus shouted. "He was one of the original Death Eaters along with Avery's dad. And from what I've heard you don't want to mess with him."

Jane shook her head. "What a mess we've all gotten ourselves into."

They both sat there looking at each other until Jane got up and headed towards the girls staircase.

"Jane" Regulus called "Is it alright with you if I take Ellie to Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah you can. Just don't hurt her or bring her in to any of this."

"Don't worry I won't."

Jane turned around and headed up the staircase. Regulus pulled the same small tattered book out of his pocket, placed it on the table and started to write in it.


	11. Hogsmeade

**Chapter Eleven – Hogsmeade**

Regulus and Avery walked into the Great Hall and saw that it was already decorated for the Halloween feast later that day. Looking up at the enchanted ceiling they could both see that a weak autumn sun was shining down on Hogwarts.

"It looks like it's going to be a nice day." Regulus said with a beaming smile on his face.

"What's made you so happy today?" Avery asked.

"Nothing."

"Oh come on. I've never seen you bounce to breakfast before. Something has to have happened."

Regulus glanced down the table and smiled at Ellie, who was sitting a few seats away. Then he turned back to Avery.

"Well today I'm going to Hogsmeade with Ellie." Regulus said with his grin now ear to ear.

Avery stared at Regulus in disbelief for a few seconds, and then he slapped him around the back of his head.

"Hey!" Regulus snapped rubbing his head "What was that for?"

"You're an idiot! Did you forget that we're supposed to meet Malfoy and Bellatrix today at 12 in the Three Broomsticks? You can't go on a date and do that at the same time!" Avery said sounding exasperated.

"Oh crap. I completely forgot. What am I going to do? Cause I can't tell Ellie that I can't go with her, she'll never speak to me again!"

"Just calm down a minute and let me think."

After a moment's pause Avery spoke up again.

"You're just going to have to tell her that you need to spend an hour in the Three Broomsticks with your cousin because you haven't seen her in a while."

"I suppose that could work." Regulus said not sounding at all convinced.

"You'd better go and tell her now to get it over with." Avery suggested.

"Yeah, OK."

Regulus got up and walked over to where Ellie was sitting and he tapped her on her shoulder.

"Hi Ellie. I need to talk to you."

Ellie stood up and Regulus pulled her over to the side of the hall so no one else could hear what they were saying.

"What is it Reg?" She asked.

"Well it's about us going to Hogsmeade. You see I'm going to have to disappear for an hour at 12 because I have to meet my cousin in the Three Broomsticks. But after that I'll be with you for the rest of the day."

"Oh. Well that's ok I suppose, as long as you spend the rest of the day with me." Ellie said with a trace of disappointment in her voice.

"I will do I promise. I'm going to go and finish my breakfast, so I'll meet you in the entrance hall at 10."

Regulus headed back towards Avery and Ellie sat down in her seat. When Regulus reached Avery he didn't sit back down but carried on walking towards the entrance hall. Avery got up and followed him.

"So how did she take it?" Avery asked when they had reached the Entrance Hall.

"Well she seemed ok with it, but she did look a little disappointed." Regulus replied

"At least she didn't shout at you." Avery pointed out

"Yeah that's true. I'm going to head to the dormitory and get ready. I'm meeting Ellie at 10. Should we meet outside the Three Broomsticks at 12?"

"Sure, we can do that."

"I'll see you later then." Regulus said as he turned and headed off towards the Slytherin common room.

Avery watched Regulus walk across the Entrance Hall towards the dungeons and then turned around and headed back into the Great Hall to finish his breakfast.

* * *

"So what did you get Padfoot?" Peter asked bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement.

Sirius, Peter, James and Remus had just come out of Zonkos joke shop. After a morning worth of browsing and buying they each had bags full of Zonkos products, all except for James.

"Well I've got some dungbombs, because after our last prank I ran out, some non-explodable luminous balloons and a few filibuster fireworks. And I still can't believe that you actually kept your promise to Evans, Prongs." Sirius said giving James a look of amazement.

"I had too. After she found out that I…"

"You mean after you told her that you did the prank." Remus pointed out.

"Yes alright." James snapped. "After I told her it was me that did the prank I had to promise not to do anymore, or she would have told Dumbledore. So that means not buying any Zonkos products. It was torture being in there and not being able to buy anything."

"I feel for you Prongs, but it's your own stupid fault! Anyway, where shall we go next lads?" Sirius asked.

"Well I need to go to Scrivenshaft's for a new quill." Remus replied.

"Can we go to The Three Broomsticks after? I think I could persuade Rosmerta to give us some Firewhiskies now where all of age." James pleaded.

"OK Scrivenshaft's first, then The Three Broomsticks." Sirius declared.

They all started on up the road but suddenly came to a stop when Peter and Remus got knocked over by someone hurrying in the other direction.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" Sirius shouted after them.

Sirius and James helped Peter and Remus off the ground and then helped them gather the things that had fallen out of their bags. Sirius turned to James.

"I wonder who that was." He said

"Well it looks like your brother." James replied.

"I wonder why he was in such a hurry."

* * *

It was after 12 O'clock and Avery was standing outside The Three Broomsticks tapping his foot impatiently. After a few minutes he saw who he was waiting for hurrying down the street.

"What took you so long Reg?" Avery asked sounding a little annoyed.

"I'm sorry, I had to make my way down from Scrivenshaft's, Ellie wanted to buy a new quill. She's gone into Gladrags Wizard Wear with Jane, and I'm supposed to meet her at Madam Puddifoots at 1:15"

"Well it sounds like you've got your whole day planned out. So you better hope that this doesn't last any longer then an hour."

"Yeah, well knowing my cousin it will be short and sweet. Shall we go in then?" Regulus asked.

"Sure, we may as well get this over with."

Avery and Regulus walked into The Three Broomsticks and the noise that hit them was thunderous. It was packed with Hogwarts students with the odd older witch and wizard dotted around the room. They saw Howland Coopey, the Ravenclaw quidditch captain, sitting at a table with Greta Catchlove, one of his chasers. Aubrey and Cooper, their quidditch team mates, were sitting at a table trading chocolate frog cards, and they saw Megan and Kirley McCormack standing at the bar waiting to be served.

"Shall I get us some Butterbeers then?" Regulus asked.

"No need, they've already got us some." Avery replied, nodding over to a table in the corner.

Sitting at the table was a man with pale blond hair, a pointed face and cold grey eyes. Next to him was a tall woman with long black hair, a pretty face and grey eyes, both of them looked to be in their early twenties, and both were looking around the inn with an air of superiority. In front of them were two half-empty glasses of firewhisky and two untouched bottles of Butterbeer. Avery and Regulus made their way over to the pair, and when they were half way too them the woman spotted them and waved with a sadistic grin on her face. While the man just glared at them both.

"Hello dear cousin." The woman said as they reach the table. "Why don't you and junior sit down and have a drink."

"Hello Bellatrix, Malfoy." Regulus said nodding to each in turn as he sat down at the table.

"I really wish you wouldn't call me junior." Avery said with a scowl on his face as he took a seat next to Regulus.

"Why not Avery, it's part of your name." Malfoy pointed out sneering at him.

"You know Malfoy; I always thought you looked better with flaming red hair. Let me change it for you." Avery said coolly, while he was twiddling his wand around his fingers.

"I'll like to see you try." Malfoy growled.

"Now, now boys, play nice." Bellatrix said as she grabbed Malfoy's arm just before he plunged it into his robes.

Avery sat there with a smirk on his face, from the reaction he got from Malfoy, sipping from his bottle of Butterbeer. Regulus was glancing from Avery to Malfoy with an incredulous look on his face.

"Fine. Let's get down to business." Malfoy said gruffly. "The Dark Lord isn't pleased with you two. And your father isn't too pleased either Avery, in fact he thought about coming down here himself."

Avery and Regulus just sat there and didn't say anything.

"Even though we know that your efforts have improved slightly over the last week or so…"

"How do you know that?" Avery asked cutting across Bellatrix.

Regulus shot Avery a questioning look, but Avery just shook his head very slightly.

"We have our sources." She replied. "Now as I was saying, even with your slight improvement the Dark Lord wants to know why your mission is going so slowly."

"The main reason is that he's asking us too break into Dumbledore's office without anyone finding out!" Regulus said

Both Bellatrix and Malfoy glared at him, and Avery kicked him under the table.

"Are you saying that you cannot do the task the Dark Lord has set you?" Malfoy hissed

"What Reg meant is that it will take us a little longer as we need an opportunity where hardly anyone is in the castle, so we will be less likely to get caught. Luckily that should be happening by the end of November." Avery replied.

"Good. We shall tell the Dark Lord to expect them by the end of November then. But don't fail or the next time you see us there won't be much talking." Bellatrix warned them.

Malfoy and Bellatrix finished their Firewhiskies and got up from the table. Malfoy lent down and spoke quietly into Avery's ear.

"I, personally am looking forward too that day Junior."

Avery went to stand up but Regulus grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down, and whispered in his ear "Are you Mad?"

Avery glared after both of them as the exited into the sunshine outside.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Regulus asked incredulously.

"Malfoy wouldn't have done anything in here." Avery replied dismissively, taking another sip out of his bottle of Butterbeer. "Anyway Malfoy's wanted to get back at me ever since I transfigured his hair into flames back in my first year. What's the harm in giving him a little more incentive?"

"If you give him anymore incentive, he could end up killing you. You know he wouldn't give it a second thought." Regulus replied sounding worried.

"I'd like to see him try it. I wouldn't have any problem killing him either if it came down to it." Avery snarled.

Regulus just stared at Avery, surprised at what he just said.

"Come on finish your Butterbeer, you have to meet Ellie in 20 minutes."

Regulus finished his bottle of Butterbeer, and they both got up from the table and headed out of the Three Broomsticks. When they got outside they were met with a scene of chaos. Peter Pettigrew was lying on the floor as stiff as a board, James Potter was pointing his wand at Lucius Malfoy, who was hanging upside-down in mid air, and Bellatrix and Sirius Black were standing with their wands pointing at each other.

"Potter you had better put me down right now or you're going to regret it." Malfoy hissed.

"I'll let you down when you apologize for calling Lilly a mudblood." James shouted his voice full of rage.

"Well Bellatrix it looks like it's just you and me." Sirius said his voice full of hatred.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, blood traitor." Bellatrix shouted back with venom in her voice. "I'll take pleasure in torturing you."

Just as Sirius and Bellatrix were about to start casting spells at each other, their wands flew out of their hands.

"Mr. Potter, would you be so kind and let poor Mr. Malfoy down?" Dumbledore asked. He was standing in the middle of the street with three wands in his hand, and Remus Lupin by his side.

"Yes professor." James replied reluctantly, and flicked his wand. Malfoy fell to the ground with a thud.

"Now I believe that you owe Miss Evans an apology Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said with a smile on his face.

Malfoy's face went a bright shade of red, but he turned to Lilly and said "sorry" through gritted teeth.

"Now I think that both of you should leave, before Mr. Malfoy faints from all the blood that's rushing to his head." Dumbledore seemed to be enjoying himself.

He threw Bellatrix back her wand, she caught it, and a few seconds later there were two pops and Malfoy and Bellatrix had both gone. Dumbledore walked over to Peter, pointed his wand at him and said "Enervate". Peter sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"I believe that this is yours Mr. Black." Dumbledore said as he handed Sirius back his wand.

"Thank you, professor."

"Now seem as though I'm here I think that I'm going to have a drink in the Three Broomsticks." said Dumbledore, and he walked passed Avery and Regulus and into the Three Broomsticks.

Sirius and Remus helped Peter off the ground and they followed Dumbledore into the Three Broomsticks, and James went over to talk to Lilly.

"You know." Avery said to Regulus, still with a shocked look on his face. "I think that's the first time I've actually rooted for Potter and Black!"

"Yeah, me too." Regulus replied.


	12. Dazed and Confused

**Chapter Twelve – Dazed and Confused**

"How many times do I have to tell you James I don't need you to protect me. I can look after myself." Lilly said with a hint of anger in her voice.

They were on their way back to the Gryffindor common room after completing their patrols. It had been just under a week since the incident in Hogsmeade with Malfoy and Bellatrix, and Lilly and James had been arguing about it constantly throughout the week.

"But I want to protect you Lilly." James moaned. "Besides that slimy coward Malfoy called you a mudblood!"

"It doesn't matter what he called me." Lilly sighed.

"Well it matters to me. I don't like hearing people calling you that." James said pouting

"And because of that, Lucius Malfoy is now going to be out to get even with you."

"I can handle Malfoy, no problem." James said cockily

"Not if you go up against him with that attitude. You could get hurt." Lilly replied.

"Why, Lilly, are you concerned about my safety?"

Lilly was about to retort but she stopped at the sound of someone coughing. They both looked up and were surprised to see the Fat Lady looking down upon them. Neither of them realised that they had made it back to their common room.

"I'm not interrupting a lover's quarrel am I?" the Fat lady asked.

Lilly shot a glare at the portrait. "We are not lovers!" She replied with a tinge of red spreading across her cheeks.

"You could have fooled me, you two have been arguing like an old married couple for Merlin knows how long." The Fat Lady said.

"Fortuna Major" Lilly said her cheeks now flushed completely.

The portrait of the Fat Lady reluctantly swung open and Lilly and James climbed through the portrait hole and into the Gryffindor common room. Without another look at James, Lilly walked over to Sarah who was sitting in the corner of the room and started talking to her. James walked towards the fireplace and sat down next to Remus, who was reading a book.

"What did you do this time Padfoot?" Remus asked

"What do you mean?" James replied

"Well when Lilly walked into the common room, her face was almost the same colour as her hair!" Remus pointed out.

"That wasn't me Moony!" James said indignantly. "It was something that the Fat Lady said."

"OK" Remus replied and went back to reading his book.

James sat there pondering over what the Fat Lady had said and Lilly's reaction to it. He watched Lilly and Sarah finish their conversation and head up to the girl's dormitories and for a moment he thought he saw Lilly smile at him as she headed up the stairs.

"You know Moony; I think that Lilly might actually like me!" James said slowly.

Remus just sat there reading his book smiling to himself.

* * *

The day of the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor Vs Slytherin, dawned on Hogwarts with torrential rain and gale force winds. Avery and Regulus glared up at the enchanted ceiling as they walked into the Great Hall, as if it was its fault. As they reached their table they were greeted with cheers from their fellow Slytherins. Regulus sat down next to Ellie and held her hand, and Avery sat down next to him.

"I'm going to need you two to concentrate on the game today and not on each other." Avery said looking down at their joined hands.

Ever since Regulus and Ellie had come back from the trip to Hogsmeade they had been inseparable. For the last week they'd been holding hands and kissing in corridors, only being apart when they had different lessons.

"It'll be hard enough to beat Gryffindor without you two staring at each other throughout the game!"

"Don't worry, Avery, I want to beat them as much as you do." Regulus said

Avery was about to reply when a loud cheer sounded from the Gryffindor table and a chorus of boos came from the Slytherins. Avery and Regulus both looked up at the noise to see Sirius and James entering the Great Hall and bowing to the cheers from the Gryffindors.

"I hope you do win, that'd wipe the smug looks off Potter and Blacks faces."

Avery looked behind him and saw Snape standing there glaring over at the Gryffindor table.

"Here, Severus, you can have my seat, I'm going to get ready for the match. Reg, tell Aubrey and Cooper to come down to the pitch in 15 minutes, I'll tell Jane and Jennifer. I want to go over the tactics one more time before the game." Avery said as he got up and headed out of the Great Hall.

Snape sat down, ignoring Regulus and Ellie, and continued to glare across the hall at Sirius and James.

"You know that Avery's right, Ellie. As much as I love to watch you fly I'm going to have to concentrate on the game, and so are you, Jones is a good seeker."

"Don't worry Reg, I'm sure I can take my eyes off you for a few hours." Ellie said mockingly. "There's Aubrey and Cooper, hadn't you better go and tell them what Avery said?"

Aubrey and Cooper had just walked into the Great Hall together and sat down at the Slytherin table. Regulus got up, walked over to them, said a few words and walked back over to Ellie.

"They said that they're just going to have breakfast and will be there in 10 minutes. We should get going, so Avery doesn't have a chance to moan at us." Regulus said, and he held out his hand.

Ellie got up from the table took Regulus hand and they both headed out of the Great Hall, to get their broomsticks from their dormitories.

* * *

"Come on, Prongs, snap out of it!"

Sirius and James were walking down to the Quidditch pitch with their broomsticks slung over their shoulders. James had a dazed and confused look on his face, and he hadn't said anything since they had left the Great Hall.

"Earth to, Prongs." Sirius said grabbing James by the shoulders and shaking him.

"She kissed me, Padfoot." James sighed, and touched his cheek where Lilly had kissed and wished him good luck only moments before, while they were leaving the Great Hall.

"Why she had to do it before the match and not after, Merlin knows. We need you to concentrate, Prongs!" Sirius moaned.

James just sighed again.

SLAP

James was now holding his other cheek for a completely different reason. Sirius had just slapped him. James rounded on Sirius glaring at him.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?!" He shouted.

"We needed you focused on the game, and that's the only way I could think of snapping you out of it." Sirius replied. "Now get in there, get changed, and rally the troops like you normally do."

James stormed off mumbling to himself and walked inside the changing rooms Sirius was pointing too. Sirius stood there shaking his head and went inside after him.

***

After ten minutes had past the rest of the team had arrived, and were changed and ready for James's team talk. He was standing up facing them all with a look of determination on his face.

"Right team. This is our first match of the season and it's against Slytherin. It's probably going to be our toughest match this year, as Avery has got a strong team together and the weather is…well…c**p. But if we beat them we'll have one hand on the cup. And we _are_ going to beat them, _aren't_ we?" James demanded.

"YES" the team barked in approval.

"Now our practices have been brilliant, and I want that to continue into this game. So, Megan, just do what you've been doing for the last three years, and keep stopping those quaffles. Sirius, Phillip, you two have worked seamlessly in practice so just keep it up. Kirley, James, I couldn't ask for any better chasers then you guys. And Sarah, just do what you do best and catch that snitch. Let's go." James roared.

The team gathered behind James, mounted their brooms and headed out onto the pitch.

_"And here comes the Gryffindor team."_ John Johnson said. He was a short, well built 7th year Hufflepuff, with a round face and short brown hair. He played beater on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. _"McCormack, Wood, Black, McCormack, Jordan, Jones and their captain Potter."_ Each name was met by a chorus of boos or cheers from the crowd.

James flew a few laps around the stadium, followed by his team and then they landed and made their way over to Madam Hooch, who was standing in the middle of the pitch with the Quaffle in one had and a whistle in her other.

"And here's the Slytherin team." Johnson's voice boomed around the stadium. "_Aubrey, Cooper, Widdershins, Black, Collingwood, Collingwood and their captain Avery."_ Again each name was met with a chorus of boos and cheers.

After a few laps around the stadium the Slytherin team joined the Gryffindor's in the centre of the pitch. Avery and James glared at each other.

"Captains please shake hands." Madam Hooch ordered.

James and Avery grabbed each other's hand. James felt Avery trying to crush his hand, but he just smirked back at him.

"Now I want a clean game from all of you." Madam Hooch said. "Mount your brooms."

Both teams straddled their brooms, as did Madam Hooch. She then threw the quaffle into the air and blew her whistle.

_"And there off, it's Black with the quaffle, Jordan comes in for a tackle, but a bludger hit by Aubrey sends her off course. Black now has a clear route through to the goals, he's shaping up for a shot…and a save by McCormack."_

James flew around shouting orders at his other two chasers for their next attack until he spotted Lilly in the crowd. He stopped for a second and smiled to himself.

"James, look out!!" Kirley shouted.

James quickly realised that there was a bludger headed for him, so he rolled out of the way and flew off to join their next attack.

_"That was a narrow miss there for Potter. He seemed to be distracted by something in the crowd. Here come Gryffindor on their next attack. It's Potter, who seems to have recovered from his momentary lapse, with the quaffle. Collingwood tries a tackle…but misses, and Potter dodges another bludger that was sent his way by Cooper this time. Potter's bearing down on the goals he's going to shoot…but no, he passes back to McCormack who now has three open goals to choose from as Potter completely confused Avery there. McCormack shoots and it's 10-0 to Gryffindor!"_

Wild cheers erupted from the Gryffindor end of the stands. And James flew back down the pitch smiling to himself about how well the plan had worked.

"_And that was some smart play there by Potter. It looks like he has a well oiled team together this year, and is probably hoping to retain the Quidditch cup." A chorus of boos erupted form the Slytherin part of the stands. "The Slytherin team have regrouped and are starting their next attack. Avery throws the quaffle to Black, who quickly passes it onto Widdershins, who gets hit by a bludger sent by Black, and drops the quaffle. Jordan grabs the quaffle but he drops it trying to dodge two bludgers and Collingwood picks it up."_

The pace of the game was quickening and James couldn't help but be please by how well his team was performing.

_"Collingwood still has the quaffle and passes it to Black just before she gets hit by a bludger, Black with a quick pass to Widdershins, who passes it back to Collingwood, who shoots… and scores 10-10. McCormack just couldn't reach it; it just grazed the tips of her fingers."_

The crowd again erupted in a din of noise; cheering, booing and applause. The crowd was enjoying what they were seeing, two teams working like clockwork playing an amazing game of quidditch. James was getting excited, he was in his element, and he loved playing Quidditch, especially when it was played like this.

_"Widdershins with the quaffle, she passes to Black, no she doesn't, McCormack intercepts the pass and streaks down the field. But he gets hit by a bludger and drops the quaffle. Black picks it up and heads towards the Gryffindor goals. Wait a moment the Seekers seem to have seen the snitch. Collingwood and Jones are both diving towards the ground; Collingwood is in the lead she's going to get there first, she's almost there. But a bludger by Wood has caused the seekers to scatter and it looks like the snitch has disappeared. Quick thinking there by Wood."_

The rest of the teams and the whole stadium had watched the two seekers going into the dive, and now the two teams were just hovering in mid air.

_"Potter seems to have been the quickest to react here, as he has snatched the quaffle from Black and is now streaking down the field towards the goals, he shoots…and scores 20-10 Gryffindor!"_

James flew down the pitch to the Gryffindor crowd and was looking for Lilly; he stopped to hover in front of the crowd to make finding her easier. He spotted her and was a bout to wave when he heard some shout "LOOK OUT!"

He turned around and saw a bludger flying straight at him but it was too late to dodge, and it hit him on the head and everything went black.


	13. The Hospital Wing

**Chapter Thirteen – The Hospital Wing **

"He doesn't look to good."

"Well, he did fall off his broom and hit the floor!"

"And that bludger hit him."

"It's lucky that you and Wood tried to catch him, Sirius, or he would have hit the ground harder."

James could hear voices all around him, but he didn't know where he was or why he was lying down. The last thing he could remember was that he was playing Quidditch.

"What was the idiot doing just hovering there? He made himself an open target!"

James recognized the last voice, even though it was fuzzy, it was Sirius, but why he was being called an idiot he didn't know.

"It wasn't just James's fault. Aubrey shouldn't have hit the bludger at him. The Quaffle wasn't in play!"

He recognized that voice as well. It was Lilly. James opened his eyes and looked around the room. It was as fuzzy and blurred as the voices. Someone had taken his glasses off, but he could make out the shapes of nine people standing around his bed.

"But James hadn't just done it once, he'd done it twice! He was acting all weird throughout the game."

That voice was less familiar it could have been Kirley or Jordan, James wasn't sure which.

"This is all your fault! If you hadn't distracted him with that kiss before the game."

The kiss. The Quidditch match. The Bludger. James remembered why he was lying in a bed in the hospital wing, but was a bit confused as to why he wasn't covered in more bandages. He also realised who Sirius was shouting at.

"Leave her alone Padfoot. It wasn't her fault." James croaked.

Sirius bit back what he was going to say to Lilly and turned towards James's bed

"Where are my glasses? I can hardly see." James asked

"Here they are." Replied Lilly

She lent down towards James and put his glasses back on. As she was doing so James caught a whiff of her perfume, and smiled to himself.

"Did that bludger damage your brain?" Sirius asked.

"No. Why?"

"Cause you've got a glazed look on your face."

"That's…nothing. So are you going to tell me what happen or not?"

As soon as James asked the question they all burst out with explanations. But James wasn't listening to any of them he had noticed that Lilly wasn't saying anything, she was just standing there with a worried look on her face. All the noise must have alerted Madam Pomfrey, as within minutes she was out of her office and by James's bed.

"Only six visitors at a time. Some of you are going to have to wait outside." She ordered

"We'll go." Kirley said, and he, Wood and Jordan walked out of the hospital wing.

"Now, please don't be too loud. There're other patients in this ward." Madam Pomfrey said as she walked back to her office.

"So what happened?" James asked after she had disappeared.

"Well after you got hit by that bludger you fell off your broom." Peter replied

"I'd figured that much."

"Me and Wood saw you fall and tried to catch you but you fell through our hands and hit the floor. Madam Pomfrey said that if it wasn't for that, and the ground being all soft and muddy cause of the rain, you'd have had a lot more injuries." Sirius added.

"I suppose I am lucky, even though my whole body aches. And I have a hell of a headache!" James moaned.

"You did get hit in the head with a bludger." Remus pointed out.

"What happened in the match?" James asked.

"It ended up 170-170. We couldn't cope with there chasers, being one down our selves." Sirius replied. "We would have lost but Sarah managed to catch the snitch just in time."

Sarah smiled at the compliment she received from Sirius.

"I guess a draw isn't that bad. We should have won though, we were playing brilliantly." James said sounding disappointed.

"It's a bit hard to win when your star chaser gets distracted and hit by a bludger." Sirius Jibed.

"It wasn't James's fault! Aubrey shouldn't have hit that bludger at him after he scored!" Lilly retorted.

"Of course it was his fault. He should have been paying attention to the game instead of trying to impress you!" Sirius growled, rounding on Lilly.

"What!" Lilly shouted.

"Don't go acting all innocent. If you hadn't gone and kissed him we would have won that match and he…"

"Leave her alone, Sirius!" James shouted, interrupting Sirius in mid sentence.

Before a shouting match could break out between the two of them a loud bang echoed around the room. They all turned around and saw Madam Pomfrey marching towards them with a grim look on her face, and behind her was the source of the loud bang; her office door was swinging on its hinges. She came to a stop in front of them, and they all waited for her outburst.

"Mr. Potter needs his rest, and you've had more than enough time to talk, so would you all please leave and go to you're common rooms." She said, with such a stern tone of voice that no one dared to argue with her.

They all murmured their goodbyes to James and trudged out of the hospital wing. James noticed that Sirius and Lilly stayed as far away from each other as possible.

"Now, Mr. Potter, you need to drink this sleeping draught so that the potions can have the time they need to heal your wounds."

"Can't they heal me while I'm awake?" James moaned.

"Well they can, but if you drink the sleeping draught you'll be out of here a day earlier."

"OK, I'll drink it." He conceded.

Madam Pomfrey reached over to his side cabinet and picked up a goblet and poured some potion into it. She handed the goblet to James.

"Now drink all of that, and I'll check up on you in the morning."

After James had taken the goblet of sleeping potion off her, Madam Pomfrey went back to her office. James looked down at the goblet and saw a steaming purple potion. He lifted the goblet up to his mouth, tilted it back and swallowed. A warm cosy sensation started to spread through his body. It reminded him of sitting by a fire, drinking hot chocolate on a cold winters night. A few seconds after he had finished the potion everything went black for the second time that day.


	14. Brotherly Love

**Chapter fourteen – Brotherly Love**

"Did you see his face when he saw that bludger coming at him?" Snape said gleefully. "I wish I'd have taken a picture, then I could watch that bludger hit him over and over."

The Slytherin Quidditch team and Snape were sitting round the fire in their common room, drying off after the Quidditch match.

"It was a bit scary watching him fall though." Jane said.

"Oh come on, its not like any of the teachers were going to let him hit the ground. Which was a pity." Snape said with a sadistic grin across his face. "Aubrey, next time we go into Hogsmeade remind me to buy you a shot of fire whiskey."

"Sure." Aubrey replied. "Me and Cooper have got to go to the library. We've a potions easy to finish for Slughorn, and he says if we don't get it finished by Monday he'll put us in detention."

Aubrey and Cooper both got up and headed off to the library.

"I could live that moment over and over again, it was so good to watch." Snape said.

"Would you just shut up about that!" Regulus shouted. "You do realize that if my brother and Wood hadn't tried to catch him he could have died! Aubrey shouldn't have hit that bludger anyway, the Quaffle was out of play."

The group was in shocked silence for a moment after Regulus's outburst, until Snape spoke up again.

"What a surprise, a Black sticking up for a Potter. You're just like your brother. A filthy blood traitor." Snape spat.

Within a second Regulus was up out of his seat and had his wand drawn and pointed at Snape.

"I. Am. Not. Like. My. Brother." Regulus said through gritted teeth. "I just don't think that it's a good thing to want someone to die just because they're more popular then you!"

They were now both glaring at each other with a look of hatred in their eyes, it looked as if one more word would start spells flying from their wands. Jane, Ellie and Jennifer were looking at each other nervously and the rest of the common room was watching in anticipation. Avery however was just sitting there as if this was just a normal conversation.

"Severus, stop being stupid and put your wand away. Reg, calm down and sit down." Avery said calmly but sternly.

Snape and Regulus both glared at each other and then put their wands away and sat down. Regulus turned to Avery.

"I don't know why you're acting so calm. You should have had words with Aubrey for what he did. Since when did we resort to cheating to win?" Regulus demanded.

"Look, I would never ask him to do what he did, but it gave us an advantage in the game so I'm not going to shout at him for doing it." Avery replied.

Regulus looked at Avery with disbelief and shook his head. He got up out of his seat and stormed out of the common room. Ellie got up and went after him.

"What is his problem? He's got to learn where his priorities lie. He shouldn't care what happens to a Gryffindor, he's a Slytherin." Snape said.

"I told you to drop it, Severus." Avery replied sternly.

Regulus didn't know where he was going, he was just letting his feet carry him. He was angry but he didn't know why. Was it because Snape had said he was like his brother? Or called him a blood traitor? Or the way he was acting over Potters injury? He just didn't know. When he had finally finished thinking about what had happened he looked around and took in his surroundings. He found himself looking over the Quidditch pitch and in the distance he could see the sun starting to set over the village of Hogsmeade. Regulus knew that dinner must have started in the Great Hall, but even though he was hungry he didn't want to go. He wanted to be alone, so he sat down and watched the sun set.

***

"There you are."

Regulus turned around and saw Ellie standing behind him with a bundle in her hand. It had been over an hour since he had sat down to watch the sunset; it was now just dipping behind the houses in Hogsmeade, making the sky a deep red. Ellie walked over and sat down next to him.

"I brought you some dinner. I thought that you would be hungry." Ellie said, handing the bundle over to Regulus.

He opened the bundle up and inside was some sausages, potatoes and chicken legs. He tucked into them straight away.

"You had me really worried. You've been gone for hours! We've been looking everywhere for you. Jane, Jennifer and Avery were helping me to find you."

Regulus didn't say anything he just sat there and ate the food, looking out over the horizon. Ellie decided to change tact to get him to talk.

"You know, this would be really romantic under different circumstances. Having a picnic while watching the sunset would make a really good date."

Regulus still didn't say anything and Ellie was getting really worried about him.

"Please Reg, say something." She pleaded.

He turned and looked at Ellie and then looked back at the Quidditch pitch.

"Did you know that Sirius used to take me to play Quidditch at the park near our house. We used to sneak out at night and play. He said that when we were both at Hogwarts we'd be on the same Quidditch team and win the house cup together." Regulus said, with a small smile on his face.

"So this is about Sirius. You don't have to be ashamed of being compared to your brother. Even if he _is_ in Gryffindor. He's a great wizard, like you, and a great Quidditch player, like you." Ellie stated.

"I don't want to be compared to him. He left me with them, when he promised that he would always be there to look out for me. HE LEFT ME THERE ALONE AND I HATE HIM FOR THAT!" Regulus shouted.

Regulus put his head in his hands and started to cry. Ellie lent over and pulled him into a hug.

"It's alright, Reg you're not alone anymore you've got me."

* * *

"So how long do you reckon Prongs is going to have to stay in there for?" Sirius asked

Remus and Sirius had just been to the Hospital wing to visit James for the second time that day. When they got there however he was asleep, Madam Pomfrey had said that he'd had some sleeping potion, so they were now on their way to the Gryffindor common room.

"Weren't you listening to what Madam Pomfrey said?" Remus asked.

"Moony, when do I ever listen to a teacher? Well expect for McGonagall."

"Good point. Well Madam Pomfrey said that he'd be in there for another two or three days. So he should be out on Monday or Tuesday."

"That's not too bad. But I don't think that he'll like spending a weekend in bed. Do you reckon that Wormtail's finished that essay for McGonagall yet?" Sirius asked

"I don't know. But I've got to go to the Library later anyway. I've got an Ancient Runes essay to do." Remus replied.

"I really don't know why you take that subject, Moony. It's…"

Sirius stopped speaking in mid sentence as a girl came darting round the corner and straight into Remus. Sirius bent down and pulled the girl off Remus.

"Are you all right? Only that looked as if it…" Sirius stopped talking when he saw the girls face.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yes it's me."

They both went over and helped Remus up off the floor.

"Are you ok, Remus? I'm really sorry, I didn't see you there." She asked

"Yeah I'm ok, don't worry about it, Jane." Remus replied.

"What were you doing running around the castle anyway?" Sirius snapped.

"If you must know I was looking for your brother. He's been missing for hours and we can't find him anywhere."

"He probably just wanted to get away from you lot. And I wouldn't blame him. I'll see you later Moony, I'm going to the common room."

Sirius turned round and headed off down the corridor.

"I'm sorry about him. He's just a bit anti-Slytherin at the moment. Even more so then usual after what happened in the match." Remus said apologetically.

"And I'm sorry for what happened at the match. I really didn't like what Aubrey did to Potter. Neither did Reg, that's why he's gone missing. He had an argument with Snape about it and stormed out of the common room. So how is Potter doing?"

"Well, he didn't have any broken bones or anything like that, so Madam Pomfrey said that he'd be out in two to three days. He didn't seem too bothered about the fall, he was just disappointed that we didn't win the match." Remus said with a smile spreading across his face.

"Yeah that sounds like, Potter. I would like to stay and talk but I've got to go and find Reg." Jane said sounding disappointed.

"That's alright. If I see him I'll tell him that you're looking for him. If you want you can come and join me in the library after you've found him."

"I will do, once I know where he is. Bye"

Jane headed off in one direction and Remus went of in the other pleased with himself.

The walk to the Gryffindor common room twas shorter then Remus expected and he reached the Fat Lady without realizing.

"Password?" She asked.

"What?" Remus said startled out of his thoughts.

"Password?" She asked again.

"Oh, right. Fortuna Major."

The Portrait swung open and Remus climbed into the common room. He climbed the stairs to his dormitory and opened the door. He saw Sirius sitting on his bed looking at the marauders map. He started to walk over to see whom Sirius was looking for, although he already knew whom that was.

"Mischief managed." Sirius whispered.

Sirius had managed to wipe the map before Remus could get close enough to look, and had started to put it away in his trunk.

"So who were you looking for?" Remus asked innocently.

"I was just checking that you got away from Collingwood unscathed" Sirius replied.

"Well thanks for your concern, but I can look after myself. Plus Jane wouldn't curse me."

Remus went over to his trunk and pulled out some parchment, ink, his quill, and a few Ancient Runes books and put them into his bag. He headed towards the door, but just before he left he turned to Sirius and asked.

"So where is he?"

"He's by the Quidditch pitch with Collingwoods sister." Sirius replied.

Remus walked out of the room with a big grin on his face.


	15. Because I Love You

**Chapter Fifteen –** **Because I Love You**

James was sitting by his window in the boy's dormitory watching the sun's rays spreading across the castle grounds revealing the crisp white grass. It had been over two weeks since the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. James had been let out of the hospital wing two days after he had been hit by the Bludger and Lilly had been avoiding him ever since.

The dormitory was silent, apart from Peter's snores, so James was startled and almost fell off the windowsill when he was asked a question.

"What are you doing up so early?" Remus asked, sitting up in his bed.

"What!?! Moony, don't do that. You scared the life out of me." James replied.

"I'll announce that I'm awake next time, so I don't scare you." Remus said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You don't have to do that, just a little cough, or some movement would do."

"Sure. Anyway you still haven't answered my question. Why are you up so early?" Remus asked again.

"I was just thinking."

"It's about Lilly, isn't it?"

James sat staring out of the window for a few minutes then turned back round to face Remus.

"Why is she ignoring me?" He asked. "Ever since the Quidditch match she's not said a word to me and she's been avoiding me."

"What did you do?" Remus asked accusingly

"I haven't done anything. The last time I spoke to her was when all of you guys were round my bed in the hospital wing. Since then she won't let me go anywhere near her." James moaned.

"Well you've got to talk to her about it."

"What do you think I've been trying to do?" James said sounding exasperated. "It's a bit hard to talk to someone when they've been avoiding you!"

"Right. Well you've got to do something."

"I know I do. This calls for drastic measures."

"You're not going to ask Sirius for help? Cause that would just end in tears." Remus pleaded.

"I'm not that desperate. Just come with me." James replied.

James jumped off the windowsill and headed straight out of the dormitory. Remus grabbed some clothes, threw them on and followed James. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he saw James across the common room sitting in a chair at the bottom of the Girls staircase, with a look of sheer determination on his face. Remus walked over to him.

"This is your plan?" Remus asked in exasperation. "To sit at the bottom of the girl's staircase?"

"Yeah. Its brilliant isn't it?

"Well they're not quite the words I'd use. Does this plan involve anything else other then sitting?"

"Of course it does!" James said indignantly. "I'm going to wait for her to come down the stairs, and then she'll have to talk to me cause she's got nowhere else to go."

Remus just shook his head. "You do know she could just go back upstairs."

"That's not going to happen. Now grab a seat and sit down." James ordered.

Remus just stared at James for a moment and then he flicked his wand and an armchair came shuffling across the room to him. He sat down and started to twiddle his wand through his fingers.

Over the next hour a whole hoard of girls came down the stairs, every one of them giving Remus and James odd looks. Some of the Fifth and Sixth year girls tried talking to James but he just ignored them and continued to stair up the staircase. Finally Sarah came down the stairs and went over to Remus.

"What's he doing?" She asked.

"Well he has this brilliant plan to get Lilly to talk to him." Remus explained.

"What is it?"

"He's going to sit there and wait for her to come down the stairs."

"Is that it?"

"Yep. He thinks that she'll have nowhere to go."

"She'll just go back upstairs." Sarah said amused.

"That's what I said."

"Well we won't have to wait that long cause she was just finishing off getting ready."

As soon as Sarah had said this Lilly was walking down the staircase. James got out of his seat ready to do something but as soon as Lilly saw him she headed back up the staircase.

"Lilly wait!" James called, and he went straight for the staircase.

"James don't" Remus shouted.

But it was too late. An alarm sounded, the stairs turned into a slide and James came tumbling back down, landing in a heap in front of Remus and Sarah. They both burst out laughing.

"That wasn't funny. It hurt" James moaned.

"It was funny." Sarah said between laughs.

"Come on Prongs. You should know by now what happens when you do that. The amount of times that you and Padfoot tried to get up those stairs." Remus said grinning.

"But I need to get up there to get Lilly to talk to me!"

"Look, you know you can't get up there so why don't you just wait for her to talk to you?" Remus asked.

"Wait! I've got an idea. It's so simple, but it might work." James exclaimed.

"Sarah, pass me those two books off that table."

Sarah and Remus looked at each other and then back at James.

"Come on!" He moaned.

Sarah went over to the table, grabbed the books and handed them to James. He placed one book on the first step and the other on the second.

"James, I don't think this is going to work." Sarah said.

"If I just don't touch the walls or stairs I think I can make it up there." James explained.

"But…" Sarah started.

"Just let him try." Remus cut her off.

James stood on the first two books. Nothing happened. He moved the first book onto the next step and stood on that. Still nothing happened. So he carried on all the way up to the top of the staircase and no alarm went off or slide appeared.

"Are you ladies decent?" James asked. "I'm coming in."

James opened the door and walked in. He saw Megan sitting on her bed putting her shoes on, and he thought he saw a flash of red disappear into the bathroom.

"How did you get up here?" Megan asked.

"Trade secret." James replied.

"She's in there." Megan said pointing to the bathroom.

"Thanks." James said, as Megan headed out of the dormitory.

James walked over to the bathroom door and knocked on it. He didn't get a reply.

"Lilly please come out." James pleaded.

Still nothing.

"I just want to talk to you. I really don't know what I've done wrong."

Lilly still didn't say anything. James decided that a change of tact was in order.

"You know with you stuck in that bathroom, and no one else out here I'm free to look around the room. I may just try and find your diary and read it."

"Potter, if you dare touch my diary I'll curse you into a million pieces." Lilly shouted.

She came storming out of the bathroom and into the middle of the room looking for James. She turned back towards the bathroom and saw James leaning against the wall with a big grin on his face.

"Well, you're out. Now all you have to do is talk to me."

Lilly headed straight for the staircase, but she didn't get there as James grabbed her by the arm and swung her around.

"Come on Lilly. Stop being stupid and talk to me. Why have you been avoiding me?" James asked.

Lilly tried to pull her arm free from James's grip, but she couldn't so she turned around to face him.

"I just… I just don't want to see you get hurt again because of me." She said.

"What!" James said almost laughing. "This is all about the Quidditch match. That wasn't your fault Lilly, no matter what Sirius said to you. It was mine; I was trying to show off."

"It's not just that. Look what happened in Hogsmeade with, Malfoy. Who knows what he's going to do to get back at you!" Lilly said with tears in her eyes.

"I can deal with that jerk."

"No you can't James. It's different now. Haven't you been reading the Prophet?" She asked.

"Of course I have."

"Then you should have realised that with Voldemort and his Death Eaters running around, people like me aren't safe to be around!"

"You're being silly. Are you going to distance yourself from Sarah, Megan or Remus next?"

"No, because they wouldn't do something rash or stupid like to go and challenge Voldemort or one of his Death Eaters to a duel and get killed, because of me."

"But you're worth that, Lilly. No one deserves to call you unworthy of being a witch or think that they're better then you. Because you're perfect and the best witch I've ever met. And it doesn't matter if you ignore me for the rest of your life; I still wouldn't let anyone hurt you. Because I love you, Lilly Evans."

Lilly stood there in stunned silence. James grabbed her other arm and pulled her closer to him. He tilted his head towards her and kissed her. It was a deep and passionate kiss full of longing. She didn't pull away, she just let it happen. After what seemed like hours James pulled away.

"So no objections then?" He asked.

"No." Lilly replied slightly dazed.

"I'll erm, just go down to the err, common room and wait for you, while you erm, while you get your bag and things."

James headed out of the dormitory and closed the door behind him. Lilly stood there smiling to herself, admiring what a beautiful day it was. Then she heard an alarm sound and a shout. Followed shortly after by James saying "I forgot."


	16. The Headmasters Office

**Chapter Sixteen – The Headmasters Office**

Regulus and Ellie walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table next to Avery. Moments after they did, they heard a loud cheer erupt from the Gryffindor table. All three of them looked over to the doors and saw James and Lily walk in, hand in hand.

"Looks like Evans finally said yes." Avery pointed out. "Which means Jennifer owes me 5 galleons."

"You made a bet that Evans would say yes. Although I see why you did, it was bound to happen. She probably said yes just to shut Potter up! Snape's not going to be very happy though. Not that he isn't always a ray of sunshine." Regulus said.

"Well he was after a lost cause. Anyway maybe now he'll realize it."

"What are you two going on about?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing, really." Regulus replied.

"OK. What time do you want to go down to the Quidditch pitch to watch the match?"

"Well I was thinking about going down there at about...ouch!"

Avery had just given Regulus a swift kick to the shin.

"Are you ok Reg?" Ellie asked concerned.

"He's fine, he just hit his knee on the table. Didn't you say that you had an ancient runes essay to do Reg, so you couldn't go to the Quidditch match?" Avery asked, giving a meaningful look at Regulus.

"Oh, yeah I do have that essay to do." He replied

"Oh, well I can wait for you to do it and then we can spend the day together." Ellie said

"No, it's alright. You go and watch the match with your sister. I'll meet up with you later after I've finished."

"Ok. Well I'll just go and get ready then. I'll see you later."

Ellie leaned over and kissed Regulus on the cheek, and then made her way out of the Great Hall. Regulus's eyes followed her out of the doors. Avery gave him another kick to the shins to get his attention. Regulus turned quickly around.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"To get your attention." Avery replied.

"OK, but why did you do it the first time?"

"Because you were about to arrange to go to the Quidditch match with Ellie! When you know that we're not going!"

"Sorry, I forgot."

"Yeah well, sort yourself out. You need a clear head for what were going to do." Avery said sternly.

"You're right. I'm going to go up to the dormitories and get ready. You coming?" Regulus asked.

"You go on ahead, I'll meet you there, I'm going to finish off my breakfast."

* * *

An hour later the entrance hall was filled with masses of yellow and blue as the whole school headed down to the Quidditch stadium. The noise was deafening, with hundreds of voices echoing in the cavernous hall. There were banners being held proudly in the air and people swinging scarfs around their heads. This energetic scene was being watched by two people who were out of sight, hidden on the stairs down to the dungeons.

"This is taking too long." Regulus moaned. "I'm starting to get a cramp in my leg!"

Regulus and Avery were both crouched down under his invisibility cloak, so that they were as small as possible and wouldn't get knocked over by anyone coming up the stairs.

"Shut up, I can hear someone coming." Avery whispered.

Both of them went silent and lent back against the wall. After a few seconds, a small first year Slytherin came running up the stairs and into the entrance hall.

"That was close. Just be quiet until everyone has gone!" Avery reprimanded.

The huge crowd started to slowly pass through the doors onto the lawn outside. It seemed to take hours for the entire crowd to disperse, but when it did an eerie silence filled the entrance hall. Regulus and Avery slowly got up from their crouching position and made their way across the hall. They didn't speak until they were at the top of the marble staircase, out of the way of the open doors.

"Can we take the cloak off now?" Regulus asked.

"No, the ghosts are still in the castle, and Filch will be around somewhere." Avery whispered. "And keep you're voice down."

"But you're sure that Dumbledore left the castle?"

"Yes I'm sure, I saw him go outside with McGonagall. Now come on, we don't know how long the game's going to last so we better get to his office quickly."

They set off down the corridor at a fast pace, but making sure that the invisibility cloak still properly hid them. They regretted there fast pace a few minutes later as they almost collided with Professor Binns coming out of his history classroom. After this close call they decided to slow down a little. But on the Second floor Filch still almost caught them when Avery sneezed just as Filch was coming out of a girl's bathroom with a mop in his hand. Luckily he was muttering to himself about flooded toilets. And on the Fifth floor they managed to walk through Nearly Headless Nick, as he surprised them by coming out of a wall.

Finally they found themselves standing in front of the gargoyle that hid the stairway to Dumbledore's office. Regulus went to pull off the invisibility cloak, but Avery grabbed his hand.

"Not a good idea. There are still the portraits that could see us."

"You're right, I forgot about those. So what password do you want to try first?" Regulus asked.

"Well the password I had to use was Cauldron cakes, and yours was Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, so just say some sweet names." Avery replied.

"OK, erm how about…Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans."

"Licorice wand."

"Sugar quills."

"Fizzing Whizbees."

"Chocolate Frogs."

The gargoyle moved aside and the wall behind it split in two to reveal a spiral stone staircase. Regulus and Avery both stepped onto the staircase and as they did it started to spiral slowly upwards. Behind them the wall started to close and the gargoyle slid back into place. The staircase stopped and they were facing an oak door. Regulus reached for the handle and gave the door a push, it opened up slowly and they both walked inside.


	17. The Hat and the Sword

**Chapter Seventeen - The Hat and the Sword**

The headmaster's office was full of noise. All of the portraits seemed to be talking at once, and all about different things. Regulus was glad Avery had suggested keeping the invisibility cloak on, as without it their task would have been so much harder.

"Who's there?" One of the portraits asked.

Regulus recognized the portrait at once. It was Dilys Derwent. He wouldn't have forgotten that face after the hours spent with his father having to learn all the pureblood bloodlines and the headmasters/mistresses of Hogwarts. She was one of the few paintings that weren't talking, so she had noticed the door open and close but seen no-one walk through it. After she had spoken more of the portraits stopped talking and looked towards the door and to where Regulus and Avery were standing.

"We have a problem." Regulus whispered.

"I know." Avery replied. "Look there's only one thing we can do, and that's to stun all the paintings and hope that Filch doesn't hear them shouting. Do you know how to do non-verbal spells?"

"Yes. My dad taught me how last summer."

"Good then lets start stunning them."

By now most of the portraits were looking around the room and calling out for the person who opened the door. They were making so much noise that they didn't notice when Avery stunned the first portrait, which slumped in its frame. After a few more were stunned they started to notice and began shouting for help. Regulus decided it was time to join in with the stunning. He concentrated really hard, pointed his wand at the nearest portrait and thought _Stupefy._ A jet of red light shot out of his wand and hit the portrait. As he was going round the room stunning he noticed some other familiar faces, Everad and Dexter Fortescue. He took great pleasure in stunning his great-great-grandfather Phineas Nigellus Black, as he had always moaned about one thing or another when Regulus went into the guest bedroom where he hung. After a couple of minutes the room was silent.

"Can we take the cloak off now?" Regulus asked.

"Not yet. I want to find that phoenix first." Avery replied.

So they spent the next few minutes looking around the office trying to find the phoenix, but they had no luck.

"It must be off flying somewhere." Regulus said.

"I suppose your right. We can take the cloak off now." Avery said and he pulled off the invisibility cloak.

As soon as he did Regulus stretched and started walking around. Being hunched over under an invisibility cloak for an hour wasn't the most comfortable place to be. Avery did the same.

"Look out that window and see if they're still playing Quidditch." Avery ordered.

Regulus looked out of the closest window and saw some snow peaked mountains. He knew that they were to the east of the castle and the Quidditch pitch was to the west, so he walked across the room and looked out another window. He saw the pitch down below and the stands where still full.

"The match is still going on." he told Avery.

He turned back to the window and saw someone scoring a goal and heard a cheer from the crowd. Although that cheer was probably in his head as the pitch was quite far away.

"Stop looking out the window, and let's get this over with. Those portraits won't stay stunned for long." Avery said.

"Ok, Ok." Regulus said as he walked over to Avery. "How do you want to do this?"

"Well, we're just going to have to grab them and walk out the door."

"Are you sure it's going to be that easy?" Regulus asked not sounding at all convinced.

"No, but we've tried everything else. This is all that's left." Avery replied.

"Fine, lets do this then." Regulus said with a resigned look on his face.

They both walked round the headmaster's huge desk and stood before the shelf on the wall that was behind it. Regulus looked up at the shelf and saw a number of things. There was a stack of old Daily Prophet newspapers. A row of books in which he noticed a few familiar titles that where in his father's library at home; _The Dark Arts: A Legal Companion, Unforgivable curses and their Legal Implications and Advanced Defensive Magic_. And finally his eyes rested upon the two things that they had come to take, the sorting hat and Gryffindors sword.

"I'll take the sword you take the hat." Regulus said.

"Sure."

Regulus pulled a chair over to the shelf and stood on it. He reached over; opened up the glass case the sword was in and pulled it out. He waited. Nothing happened. No alarm, no curse, no noise. Nothing. He smiled and jumped down off the chair.

"Your turn." He said offering the chair to Avery.

"I don't need it."

Avery reached up, grabbed the rim of the hat and pulled it off the shelf. Again nothing happened. Again Regulus smiled.

"That _was_ easy!" Regulus said

"I wouldn't celebrate yet. We've still got to get these out of the castle and to the Dark Lord." Avery pointed out.

"I suppose you're right. I just expected there would be some curse or alarm or something when we took them off the shelf. I guess Dumbledore's getting a bit complacent."

"Yeah, maybe." Avery said not sounding at all convinced.

Regulus picked the invisibility cloak up off the floor and headed to the door.

"We'd better get going before they wake up." Regulus said pointing at the paintings.

He opened up the door a started to walk through it.

"REG WAIT!" Avery shouted.

But it was too late. As soon as he stepped out of the office a loud scream went of inside Regulus's head, and pain coursed throughout his body. The sword fell to the floor with a clatter and Regulus joined it shortly after.

* * *

"My Lord."

"What is it Malfoy?" Lord Voldemort spoke with a faint hiss in his voice.

"We have news from Hogwarts." Malfoy replied in his silky tones.

"And?"

"They have failed, my Lord."

"That is not surprising."

Voldemort sat in his chair in silence. Lucius Malfoy didn't dare to say another word until his master spoke again. Instead he looked around the room. It was a dark dank place with just the fireplace giving light to the room. He saw two other people sitting in a corner and he recognized them. They were Bellatrix Lestrange and Robert Wilkes. Lucius's attention was drawn back to Voldemort when he spoke again.

"Did they get caught?"

"No my Lord. They appear to have gotten into Dumbledore's office, but something must have happened in there, as young Mr. Black ended up in the hospital wing." Malfoy replied.

"Really?"

"Yes my Lord. So are you going to punish them?" Malfoy asked eagerly.

"Why should I do that Malfoy?"

"Well because they failed in their task." Malfoy replied sounding puzzled.

"As I recall they did much better then you or Bellatrix managed to do." Voldemort said snidely.

"But they still failed my Lord. Don't they deserve to be punished?"

"It is my decision if they should be punished or not Malfoy, not yours." Voldemort snapped.

"Yes my Lord. I'm sorry." Malfoy groveled.

"And they were always going to fail. I never expect them to pass."

"But I thought that you wanted…"

"You don't _think_ Malfoy, you _do_." Voldemort said cutting across Malfoy "This task was merely a test of their abilities. And they did well. Now send word to Avery, tell him I want to see him. He needs to be punished"

"But my Lord you said that they did well."

"They did. But they still failed. And stop questioning me Malfoy, unless you want to be punished too. Now go." Voldemort said angrily

"Yes my Lord."

Malfoy slinked away into the darkness glad that he wasn't in Avery's shoes.


	18. Punishment

**

* * *

**

Chapter Eighteen – Punishment

Regulus could hear faint voices, as if they were coming from a distance. He didn't know if they were real or if they were just inside his head. In fact he didn't even know where he was or what day it was. The last thing he remembered was being in Dumbledore's office holding a sword and a jolt of pain going through his body.

"Reg are you awake?"

That voice sounded a lot clearer, and he recognized it too. Regulus opened his eyes and he found himself looking up into a pretty face with startling green eyes. It was Ellie. But what was she doing in Dumbledore's office? And where was Avery? Regulus knew that he was with him earlier.

"Er, where are we?" Regulus croaked.

"We're in the Hospital wing." Ellie replied with a worried look on her face.

_The Hospital wing! How did I get here?_ Regulus sat up to look around the room but as he did so his body ached liked he'd just fallen down a flight of stairs.

"Are you alright Reg? You look like you're in pain." Ellie asked sounding concerned.

"I'm ok. Just a bit sore that's all. Erm I don't want to sound stupid but how did I get here?"

"Are you sure you're ok?" Ellie asked sounding worried. "Madam Pomfrey didn't say anything about memory loss."

"Ellie I'm fine. I was just out cold when I was brought here."

"Oh, right. Well Avery brought you to the hospital wing a few hours ago. I don't know when exactly, just that you were in here when I got back from watching the quidditch match."

"Was he here when you turned up?"

"Yes he was. He left just before you woke up. He said he had something to do. What you did was really stupid!"

"Avery told you what happened?" Regulus asked looking shocked.

"Of course he did. Why wouldn't he?" Ellie inquired.

"Well, erm. I just didn't think...erm." Regulus stuttered.

"You must have thought it was stupid if you didn't want me to find out."

"Well...you see."

"I mean practicing year 7 spells just so you could get ahead of everyone else."

"What!?!"

"I know you want to prove that you're better then your brother but even you should have known you could have got hurt."

"Practicing year 7 spells? Yeah I suppose it was pretty stupid of me."

"Just promise me you won't do anything like that again."

"I won't. I promise."

"Good." Ellie said and she leaned over and kissed him.

"So who won the Quidditch match then?" Regulus enquired.

"Ravenclaw thrashed Hufflepuff 300 – 50. Their chasers Catchlove, Edgecombe and Mcfarlan worked well together. So we're going to have a hard time beating them."

"Time's up Miss Collingwood."

Ellie and Regulus both jumped, they hadn't noticed madam Pomfrey coming out of her office and walking over to them.

"Could you give us five more minutes?" Ellie pleaded.

"You've already had 10 minutes more then you should have." Madam Pomfrey replied.

"Ok I'll go. I'll come back tomorrow lunch time." Ellie said as she got up off her chair and headed out of the hospital wing.

"Now Mr. Black, how are you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Well it feels like I just fell off my broom, but other then that I'm ok."

"And how's your left arm?"

"My left arm?" Regulus replied sounding worried.

"Yes you were grabbing it in your sleep a few moments before you woke up."

"Was I? It must have been a dream because it feels fine. How long am I going to have to stay in here for?"

"You should be able to leave by tomorrow night. I want to keep you in here for now for observation. Now drink this potion, it should help with the ache's you are feeling."

Madam Pomfrey put a goblet full of potion on the bedside cabinet and headed back to her office. Regulus sat there thinking. He now knew why Avery wasn't there when he woke up, although he wished he didn't. He'd missed a meeting, and they'd failed their mission. What would the Dark Lord do to him for that? What was he going to do to Avery? He could be doing it right now. To try and keep his mind off the images that were racing round his head Regulus grabbed the goblet and drank the potion. It worked, within a couple of seconds he was in a deep sleep.

* * *

Avery was rummaging around inside his trunk franticly looking for something. He wasn't having much luck. The floor of the dormitory was littered with spare cloaks, quills, books and parchment.

"Come on, I know it's in here somewhere!" Avery said sounding exasperated.

He'd now hit the bottom of the trunk and was getting desperate. Then his hand hit something silky and he new he'd found it. He didn't think that he had shoved it that far into his trunk, but there it was underneath some brass scales. He pulled out Regulus's invisibility cloak and squashed it into his pocket. With a quick flick of his wand he had all of his things back in his trunk within a few seconds, and he headed downstairs.

"Where are you off too?" Snape asked as Avery came off the stairs into the common room.

"I'm just going for a walk Severus."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Avery started across the common room, but Snape caught his arm and spun him around.

"What really happened to Black?" He asked.

"You know what happened. I was trying to teach him some year 7 spells and it went wrong."

"I don't buy that. I know that Black can already do year 7 spells, so why would you be teaching him any?"

"I was showing him some ones he didn't know, alright Severus."

Avery didn't wait for Snape to say anything else and headed out of the common room. He only got a few paces outside when Snape caught up with him again.

"Where are you really going?"

"I told you I'm just going for a walk." Avery replied sounding agitated.

"I don't believe you. You and Black are up to something. I might just go and tell Dumbledore that..."

Avery shoved his hand into his cloak, pulled out his wand and spun round.

"Don't push me Snape!" Avery growled, pointing his wand at Snape.

Snape stood there looking shocked. His hand twitched as if to go for his wand but he just turned round and headed back inside the Slytherin common room. Avery waited until the stonewall had fully closed then he pulled out the invisibility cloak. He checked that the corridor was empty and then threw it over his head. He quietly made his way up to the forth floor until he came to a large mirror. He tapped the left side of the frame with his wand, then the right side, then the bottom and finally drew a large circle on the mirror. The mirror melted away and left a hole to crawl through. Avery crawled through it and dropped down into a large corridor. He turned around and saw the mirror close up behind him. He looked down the corridor and headed down it dreading his destination.

* * *

"Peter, sit down and stop pacing." James said

Peter, James and Lily were all in the Gryffindor common room. Lily was sitting on a couch reading a book and James was lying down with his head in her lap. Peter was pacing around the room.

"They should have been back ages ago." Peter said sounding anxious "What if they've got caught?"

"Use your head Peter. They can't have gotten caught, they've got the map and cloak with them." James replied. "Sirius is just probably trying to chat up Rosmerta again, or Remus has found a book he really likes."

"They would have been back by now if you went with them." Peter pointed out.

"I couldn't go could I; I promised Lily that there would be no more mischief making from me." James said as he smiled up at Lily.

Lily smiled back. She put her book down and turned to face Peter.

"Come and sit down Peter." She said in a soothing voice. "We can play some exploding snap until they get back."

Peter walked over to the couch and sat down. James pulled out a pack of cards and they started playing.

Five minutes later Sirius crawled through the portrait hole unnoticed, arms full of bags. He walked over and stood behind the couch. There was a small explosion.

"Ha, that's 3 chocolate frogs you owe me James!" Peter exclaimed.

"You lost 3 times to Peter!" Sirius said sounding shocked.

"Sirius, you're back." Peter shouted as he jumped off the couch and started to rummage through the bags that Sirius had brought with him.

"I lost them on purpose, didn't I Lily?" James asked.

"Of course you did. I going to go and get Megan and Sarah now that Sirius is back." Lily said and leaned over and kissed him.

"OK." James replied and watched Lily leave the room. When she'd gone he turned back to Sirius.

"So what took you so long?" he enquired.

"Well we had to wait for Slughorn to leave Honeydukes before we could get back to the passage." Sirius replied.

"Why didn't you use the cloak?"

"Didn't have it."

"What?" James shouted as he shot up out of his seat. "Where is it? You haven't lost it have you?"

"Calm down will you. I haven't lost it; I just forgot to take it. Took the map though."

"That's ok then." James sighed. "But that still doesn't explain why you're back so late. And where's Moony?"

"Oh, him." Sirius said sounding angry.

"Have you two fallen out again?"

"We were on our way back to the common room when Moony saw Collingwood walking down the corridor, so he stopped to talk to her." Sirius scowled. "I waited for him for a few minutes and then got bored. So I took off without him. He's probably still talking to her now."

Sirius slumped down on the couch with a big scowl across his face. The common room was filled with silence, apart from the crackling of the fire and the rustling of the bags punctuated with moans from Peter. James turned around and saw the floor littered with luminous balloons, dungbombs, fake wands and fireworks.

"You'll have to wait for the chocolate frogs Wormtail, Moony's got them." Sirius said.

"Moony's got what?" Remus asked as he finished climbing through the portrait hole.

"Chocolate Frogs!" Peter exclaimed as he ran over to Remus and grabbed the bags off him.

"Sorry I took so long, I just had to talk to…"

"We know." Sirius and James interrupted grumpily.

"What's up with you two?" Remus asked.

"You should know." They replied.

"Look if this is about Jane." Remus said shaking his head.

"Of course it's about Collingwood, why do you keep talking to her?" James asked.

"I've told you guy's before, she's nice and not as bad as you two think she is."

"She's a Slytherin and she's trouble." Sirius shouted.

"Who I talk to hasn't got anything to do with you two." Remus bit back. "Anyway she said something you'd be interested in Sirius."

"I'm not interested."

"It's about your brother."

"I don't care."

"He's in the hospital wing. I didn't get to find out why though because Jane ran off in a hurry holding her arm. I just thought you'd want to know."

Sirius didn't reply he just sat there in silence staring at the fire. James thought that a change of conversation was in order so he looked around for something to change the subject but was saved the trouble by Peter.

"Cool, you got the firewhisky." Peter said sounding excited.

"Yeah it wasn't easy, but I managed to persuade Rosmerta to sell me a bottle." Sirius said sounding proud of himself. "What do you say to some drinking games when the girls get back? That's if Prongs's wife will let him."

"She's not my wife." James said punching Sirius in the arm. "And I'm in."

"Me too." Peter chimed in.

"Well if we have too." Remus agreed.

* * *

Avery apperated into a huge hall. He could tell that this place had seen its fare share of gatherings. It had very old wall length tapestries and thick marble columns, entwined with carved snakes, holding up the roof. There was a dank smell of mould and decay floating around the hall, and clouds of dust lifted off the ground every step he took. The only torches that were lit were at the far end of the hall. The flames from the torches lit up a group of people standing in a circle, their shadows forming eerie shapes on the wall. Avery walked over to them.

As he reached them he saw that the circle was formed around one person, who was talking animatedly. He slipped into a space in the circle hoping that he wasn't noticed. The figure in the middle turned round and looked him in the eyes.

"So, Mr. Avery has finally decided to join us." Voldemort hissed. "But I see you come empty handed and without an acquaintance!"

"My Lord…" Avery stuttered.

"Silence!" Voldemort shouted. "I did not say you could speak. You come to me alone and empty-handed. Where is Mr. Black? Has he perhaps gotten too scared and decided not to come?"

"He is…" Avery started again.

"_**Crucio**_"

Avery felt pain coursing through his body. It hurt so much that he crumpled to the floor. He could hear the rest of the circle jeering and taunting him. Then the pain lifted.

"I do not like being interrupted." Voldemort hissed. "Now you and Mr. Black were given a task to do, and not only have you failed it Mr. Black hasn't turned up either. I do not like failure. _**Crucio**_."

Again Avery felt pain throughout his body. He wished it would stop. He tried to reach for his wand to make it stop, even though he knew it would do no good. But the pain stopped again.

"Now Avery where is Mr. Black?" Voldemort asked.

Avery was shaking curled up on the floor his face soaked with sweat. He pulled himself together and pushed himself off the floor. He stood up straight and faced Voldemort.

"Regulus isn't here because he is in the Hospital wing at Hogwarts. After trying to accomplish the task _you_ set us. And I'm here empty handed because the task that you gave us was impossible to finish, and I think that you already knew that."

"Very good Avery, you're not as dumb as you look. But you still failed. And as Mr. Black isn't here you'll have to take the punishment for the both of you. _**Crucio**_."

For the third time that evening the now familiar sensation of pain coursed through Avery's body and he crumpled to the floor again. But he knew he had to take this, so Regulus wouldn't have to feel this kind of pain. He would take it and he wouldn't scream. He wouldn't give Voldemort the satisfaction of hearing him scream. And one day he would get his revenge, on the rest of the jeering, taunting circle, on his farther and most of all on Voldemort himself.


	19. Hangover

**Chapter Nineteen – Hangover**

James' head was pounding. It felt as if he had been hit on the head with a bludger over and over again. He didn't know where he was, he couldn't remember half the night before and to top it all off he had a sharp pain in his side. He decided that he was going to do something about the pain. So he opened his eyes. He found himself in the Gryffindor common room lying on one of the couches, with a quilt draped over him. The sun was just beginning to shine through the windows so James figured it was around 7 O'clock.

Now that he knew where he was and what time it was he decided to do something about the pain in his side. So he slowly sat up and the pain suddenly disappeared. He turned around and looked down at the couch and saw an empty bottle of firewhisky that just happened to be the source of two of his problems. The pain in his side, from lying on it, and his hangover. James looked around the room to see if he could find Sirius, Remus and Peter. He saw Peter sprawled on the floor with his legs up on a chair, but there was no sign of Sirius or Remus.

"Wormtail!" James croaked as loudly as he could without causing his head to start pounding again. But Peter didn't move.

"Wormtail, wake up!" James croaked again.

Peter still didn't move. James picked up the empty fire whisky bottle and threw it at Peter. It landed with a thud on Peter's chest and he sat straight up.

"Ohhhhhhhh, my head. What happened?" Peter asked dazedly.

"You had to much firewhisky." James replied.

"How much?"

"Probably about one or two shots. You're such a lightweight Wormtail." James taunted. "Do you know where Padfoot and Moony are?"

"No I don't. My head really hurts." Peter moaned.

"Well I'm going to go look for them in our dormitory, and I'll try and find that hangover cure. Do you want some?"

"Yes"

"Oh and Wormtail, don't stay down here too long or you'll be trod on by the whole house." James pointed out.

Peter didn't reply. He just curled up into a ball and went back to sleep. James slowly got up off the couch, making sure not to set his own head throbbing again, and headed towards the boys staircase. He climbed the stairs and gently pushed open the dormitory door, making sure it didn't squeak. He opened his trunk and started to rummage through it until he found a bottle filled with some turquoise liquid. James took a couple of swigs and the pounding in his head stopped.

"Ahhh, that's better." He said.

"What's better?"

James jumped up and spun round. He was face-to-face with Remus.

"Don't do that Moony. I was just taking a few swigs of hangover cure. Do you want some?" James asked.

"No thanks, I don't need any." Remus replied.

"How come you never seem to need any, Moony?

"Because I don't drink as much as you and Padfoot do." Remus pointed out.

"Speaking of Padfoot, do you know where he is? Because he's not downstairs and it doesn't look like he's in here."

"He's in the hospital wing."

"What! Why'd you say that? He's not hurt himself has he?" James asked sounding worried.

Remus didn't reply he just pointed at James' bed. So James turned around and looked at his bed. On top of the sheets was the Marauders Map. It was open and James could see two labelled dots next to each other in the hospital wing, Sirius and Regulus Black.

"I think he took your invisibility cloak too." Remus said.

"What?"

"Well there were already things all over the floor before you came upstairs."

James darted back to his trunk and started to rummage through it again. After a few minutes he stood back up and turned to Remus.

"You're right Moony, he has taken it." James sighed. "Well I better go and get him before madam Pomfrey finds a floating head next to a hospital bed, or worse his brother does. I don't think that Padfoot would ever forgive me for letting that happen."

James picked up the Marauders Map and handed it to Remus.

"Put that away will you, I won't need it. Oh, give this to Wormtail and make sure he doesn't stay down there." James said as he passed Remus the bottle of hangover cure.

James set off to the hospital wing. He was amazed at how empty and clean the castle looked so early in the morning. He only passed two people while walking through the castle, Nearly-headless Nick, who politely said hello as he passed, and Filch who stared at him suspiciously. When he reached the hospital wing the door was ajar, so he walked inside and saw Sirius' head resting on Regulus' bed. James quickly hurried over to him.

"Padfoot." James whispered, while poking Sirius in the side.

Sirius didn't move he just gave a loud grunt.

"Padfoot, wake up. We've got to go before Madam Pomfrey comes in!" James whispered again, prodding Sirius harder this time. But Sirius still didn't move.

"How am I going to move you?" James asked himself. "I've got it! _**Levicorpus**_."

James flicked his wand up as he said the spell and Sirius was dragged into the air by his ankle. James grabbed the cloak and threw it over them both, just in the nick of time as Madam Pomfrey came out of her office. James quietly walked towards the door floating Sirius just ahead of him. When they made it out of the hospital wing James sped up and headed back to their common room, kneeing Sirius in the back every few steps. After a few minutes of this, Sirius finally woke up.

"Ohhh, my head." Sirius moaned.

"You're finally awake then." James said.

"Prongs, I think I drank to much firewhisky last night because every things upside down."

"Oh. Yeah. Hold on. _**Liberacorpus**_."

Sirius fell to the ground with a thud.

"Thanks for that Prongs. It really helped my headache!" Sirius growled

"Sorry." James apologized.

"Why was I upside-down anyway?" Sirius asked

"Well, you see, you were asleep in the hospital wing with the invisibility cloak covering everything but your head. And I figured that you wouldn't want to be found there by your brother, so when you didn't wake up I had to use Levicorpus on you to get you out of there." James explained.

"I _must_ have had too much to drink if I went to check on my brother."

"Come on Padfoot. We all know that you still care about your brother." James said patting him on the back.

"Don't do that. It makes the throbbing in my head worse." Sirius moaned.

"Lets go back to the common room, and we can give you some hangover cure. If Wormtail hasn't drunk it all."

"Sure, as long as it'll stop my head from throbbing."

James took off the invisibility cloak and they both headed back to their common room.


	20. Worry

**Chapter Twenty - Worry**

"You didn't have to come and get me; I could have made it to the common room by myself." Regulus said.

"I know I didn't, but I wanted too. Plus I was a little worried after you didn't show up for dinner in the great hall. I thought that something else had happened to you." Ellie stated.

Regulus and Ellie were sitting next to each other in the Slytherin common room. Regulus had only been released from the hospital wing half an hour ago and Ellie hadn't let go of his hand since. She seemed to think that something would happen to him if she did.

"I was only let out late because I woke up with a dead leg and, Madam Pomfrey fussed over it because she thought it was another symptom." Regulus explained.

"Oh no." Ellie gasped. "What if it becomes permanent and you lose the use of one of your arms or legs!"

"Ellie, clam down." Regulus said sounding exasperated. "Like I said to Madam Pomfrey, it was just a dead leg; I probably just slept on it funny."

Ellie still didn't look reassured.

"I'm fine. And if I find my legs or arms going numb I'll go straight to the hospital wing alright?" Regulus asked.

"Of course it is. I just don't want to see you like that again. I was so worried." Ellie replied, and she rested her head onto his shoulder.

"I know you were. I promise that I won't do anything like that again." Regulus said while absently stroking her long brown hair. "Do you know where Avery is? I can't seem to see him in the common room."

"No, I've not seen him since he left the hospital wing in such a hurry yesterday evening."

Regulus looked around the common room again to see if he'd missed Avery the first time. Worry growing inside him with each turning of his head. He needed to find Avery to see if he was alright, and if he wasn't then what would the Dark Lord do to him.

"Do you know if anyone's seen him since he left the hospital wing?" Regulus asked.

"Yes, I think that Snape mentioned seeing Avery last night but Snape didn't seem too pleased about what was said."

"Really? Well I'd better find Snape to see what happened."

"Why?" Ellie asked

"Well…" Regulus thought fast. "I want to find Avery and thank him for getting me to the hospital wing, and Snape may know where he is or where he went."

Regulus started looking round the common room trying to find Snape, but he didn't have to look for long.

"There he is." Ellie said pointing towards the common room entrance.

Regulus turned around and saw the entrance to the common room sliding shut and Snape slowly walking across the room, with his head buried in a book, towards the stairs that lead to the boy's dormitories. Regulus gave Ellie a quick peck on the cheek, walked over to Snape and tapped him on his shoulder.

"Snape, I need a word." Regulus said.

Snape stopped walking, slowly closed his book and turned around to face Regulus.

"What do you want, Black." Snape spat.

"I want to talk to you about Avery." Regulus explained.

"What about him?" Snape asked.

"Not here. Somewhere it's a bit quieter." Regulus replied

Snape glared at Regulus and then turned around and headed up the staircase to the boys dormitory. Regulus followed him through the first door that they came to and closed it behind him.

"_Why_ do you want to talk to me about Avery?" Snape asked, placing his book down on his bed.

"I want to know what happened between you two yesterday. Ellie said that you had an argument."

"What happened between me and Avery has nothing to do with you."

"It does when you were the last person to see him since yesterday."

"Really?" Snape asked sounding interested.

"Yes. Now what were you and Avery arguing about?" Regulus asked sounding agitated.

"Well if you must know, Avery was heading out of the common room in a hurry, so I asked him where he was going and he didn't tell me. I asked him what had really happened to you, because I don't believe that whole learning new spells nonsense, but he didn't tell me that either. So I threatened to go and tell Dumbledore that you were both up to something, but that didn't work and he blew up in my face and stormed off."

"That's it. You didn't see where he went?"

"He was heading out of the dungeons. What really happened to you Black? And why are you so worried about Avery?"

"Mind your own business." Said Regulus, and he turned around and left the dormitory.

Regulus was frustrated. He still didn't know where Avery was or if he was all right and on top of that, Snape was suspicious of the both of them. He was just thinking what he should do next when he saw the answer to his problems heading out of the common room. He dashed out of the common room, pulling out his wand as he did so, and grabbed Jane's arm, pulled her into an empty classroom and pushed her against the wall, wand against her throat.

"Where's Avery?" he growled.

"I don't know." Jane whimpered.

"I know you were at that meeting so you must have seen what happened to him."

"He…he was t...tortured." Jane stammered.

"That doesn't explain why he still isn't back yet."

"He was tortured for the both of you."

"What?"

"Because you weren't there, Avery got your punishment too. He couldn't move afterwards. He just lay there. It was horrible." Jane replied almost crying now.

Regulus lowered his wand and let go of Jane, who slid down the wall with her head in her hands.

"Why didn't you bring him back with you?" Regulus demanded.

"The Dark Lord told us to leave. I couldn't go back, I was too scared." Jane replied through her tears.

Regulus grabbed Jane's arm and pulled her up off the floor.

"Come on." He said.

"Where are we going?" Jane asked.

"To the fourth floor. And then you're going to take me to where Avery is."

* * *

The big hall was dark and cold. The last embers of the torches were dying out, and the little light they cast made the carved snakes on the columns look as though they were alive. Avery had been alone for a few hours now and he was beginning to think that no one was going to find him. Then he heard a pop that echoed around the empty hall. Maybe it was the Dark Lord come to finish him off or Bellatrix, or Lucius.

"_**Lumos**_"

He heard a familiar voice say the spell, and saw two figures lit up at the far end of the hall. They started walking towards him and he could faintly make out that they were a witch and wizard. As they got closer he saw that it was Regulus and Jane.

"Avery, you look awful." Regulus said.

"It's nice to see you too." Avery croaked back.

"Can you stand?" Jane asked.

Avery turned his head slightly to look at her.

"Do you think I would still be here if I could?" he asked scathingly

"No, of course not. Sorry it was a stupid question."

Avery could feel himself starting to lose consciousness, talking was taking too much out of him. He beckoned Regulus towards him. Regulus knelt down and leaned towards him.

"Your invisibility cloak is under my robes. I had to borrow it." Avery whispered. "And thanks for coming."

He felt Regulus pull him up off the ground and slide one arm under his shoulder, but he couldn't stay conscious any longer, and he passed out.

* * *

Regulus wasn't sure if this was going to work. He found apparating by himself hard enough, but having to do it with two other people, one that was unconscious, he wasn't sure that he could. But he concentrated hard on Hogsmeade train station, hoped that Jane was doing the same, and turned on the spot. Next second he felt like he was being pressed into a small tube, and then he appeared in front of the train station. He quickly checked to see that all his body parts were where they were supposed to be and then looked at Avery and Jane, who both seemed to be fine too.

They dragged Avery behind the train station and into some bushes. Regulus muttered a spell and a clump of bushes jumped apart to reveal a trapdoor. He flicked his wand and the trapdoor opened revealing a staircase and he and Jane carried Avery down it. The walk down the tunnel to Hogwarts took longer than it normally did, Avery slowed them down a lot, but when they got to the back of the mirror on the fourth floor Regulus stopped. He put his hand into Avery's robes and pulled out his invisibility cloak. He turned to Jane.

"You can't tell anyone else that I've got one of these ok?" Regulus asked.

"Yeah." Jane replied sounding awed. "But why do we need to wear it?"

"Well one reason is that we're supposed to be in our dormitory right now, and another is that we can't let anyone see Avery like this." Regulus replied, slightly annoyed that she had to ask.

Regulus opened the invisibility cloak and threw it over all three of them. Then they jumped through the back of the mirror and landed in the fourth floor corridor. He checked that the cloak was covering them properly and then they headed for the Slytherin common room. Getting back to the common room seemed to take forever, but they made it back without incident. As soon as the wall had closed behind them Regulus took off the invisibility cloak and they lay Avery down on a couch.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Jane asked.

"Well he probably just needs a good night's rest, so let's take him up to his dormitory." Regulus replied.

"He'll need more then that."

Regulus spun around and saw Snape standing behind them with a look of triumph on his face.

"What are you still doing up, Snape?" Regulus spat.

"Well after I saw you run out of the common room after Jane earlier, I thought I'd wait for the both of you to come back to see what you were up to. And look what I've found."

"Why you slithery little…" Regulus started.

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if you want my help." Snape said silkily

"Help, why would we need your help?" Regulus asked.

"Because it looks as if Avery's had the Cruciatus curse used on him quite a few times. But if you don't want my help I'll leave you to it." Snape replied.

"Oh would two you to stop arguing and just help your friend!" Jane said sounding frustrated.

Regulus looked like he was going to bite back but he decided against it.

"Fine. What can you do to help, Snape?" He asked reluctantly

"I can concoct a potion that will help restore his energy. If he pulls through or not though is all up to him."

"Ok, you do that and me and Jane, will take him to his dormitory."

Regulus and Jane picked up Avery again and carried him up the boy's staircase and into his dormitory. They lay him down on his bed and waited for Snape. Half an hour later Snape came into the dormitory with a goblet full of bubbling purple potion.

"Sit him up. He can't drink it lying down, he'll choke." Snape ordered.

Regulus lifted Avery's back of the bed and held him there. Snape tilted Avery's head back and slowly poured the potion in. When the goblet was empty, Regulus led Avery back down on the bed.

"We can't do anything else. The rest is up to him." Snape said.

"Well I'm going to go to bed." Jane said looking extremely pale. "Goodnight."

After she had left the room, Regulus pulled out his wand and pointed it at Snape.

"If you tell anyone what happened tonight you'll regret it." He warned.

Then he turned around and left the room. Leaving Snape to ponder what had happened that night.


End file.
